Their True Self
by Song Of Hope
Summary: Formerly the one-shot "In A Story". From various battles Adrien Agreste starts to get closer to Marinette Dupain-Cheng, while Ladybug starts to see Chat Noir for more than just the goofball he fronts. They slowly start to see, even without knowing the other's true identity, that maybe, their regular and hero selves aren't so different from each other after all.
1. Authoress

**Song Of Hope: Hello! So for those of you that don't know me my name is Song of Hope and I write a lot of fanfiction! Mostly Ninjago, MFB, some Sailor Moon, a couple of Ouran stories and then there's other fandoms where I started fics and never posted them. Recently, I have been dragged into Ladybug via seeing so much about it online. And also into original story writing, but that's only gonna be a small part of this! Honestly the only reason why I'm using characters from my story is because I don't feel like making more characters just for the purpose of a one-shot. This is mostly just an idea I had as well a celebratory story for getting a job!**

 **I might be posting more in this fandom because currently I'm in love with it and absolutely adore the Ladybug love story and the complicated emotions behind the characters. Most of all, I love how it points out a dark truth that even the best of us can succumb to our darker emotions. I just hope they handle the reveal well! Oh well, this is gonna just be a one shot, but if anyone wants me to add more chapters to this adventure I will! It takes place right after the infamous reveal of Episode 8! Also keep in mind that while I do know a little about French school schedules and grades, I don't know how they label the different classes, study periods, or anything about testing out of classes, but if anyone wants to correct me feel free!**

 **While this is intended to be framed as a singular episode of Miraculous, please understand that since this does not have the time limits I wrote whatever the hell I wanted so it's long. Consider it a TV special if you'd like. Read & Review!**

Mrs. Bustier was writing on her chalkboard as the class mostly paid attention. And by mostly it was everyone except for Chloe, who was zoned out and not properly paying attention.

"Alright class," said Mrs. Bustier as she turned around with a smile, "we're going to do a literature project for the next month, in four different parts. I want you to pick a personal set of three protagonists from books you're fond of and explore what makes them a protagonist. What are the qualities that they possess? More importantly, are they a hero, a villain, or in between? Not every protagonist is a hero or a villain, or has an on track moral compass. Sometimes they do questionable things for the right reasons and that's what we call gray morality. If you do run into that, please expand upon it and tell me why they think these actions are right! Some stories are told entirely from a villain or general dark person's perspective. You'll have one week to read, or for most of you reread, each book and take notes on them and the protagonist and write up a summary on their development as a person at the end of the week. The last week will be spent finding correlations between them and learning what draws you to them. There's always a reason behind why we like the characters we do, and there will be repeating traits that you'll start to notice. This final part will be a presentation and everyone will have to come up and talk for at least five minutes. To help this out we're going to be meeting in the library for the next month during each of our classes. This is a solo project and while you can get a little help from friends, I will be paying attention to make sure that everyone does there own work. While I have no proof," she glanced towards Chloe and Sabrina, "I have been getting reports of cheating from other students. This will not be tolerated. Everyone will do their own work on this project. This isn't just about a grade, it's about learning something new about yourself."

"Seems like a cool project," said Alya as she raised her hand. "Mrs. Bustier, what kind of material are we limited to?"

"It can be any books that we have in our own school library that are fictional," she exclaimed. "Comics are not allowed however. It must be in a written format." A groan erupted from many students in the class. "I know, you like your comics. Comics can have great protagonists and can be interesting to study in depth, but unfortunately our library doesn't have any. You'll just have to pick books from the shelves of our school library, and you can't pick the same author more than once. Any other questions?" She looked around and saw no one raising their hands. "None? Alright then, pick up your sacks and let's go to the library."

"This seems like a cool project," said Marinette with a smile as she grabbed her bag and started walking to the library with Alya. "We don't go to the library as a class much, and this seems like it could be a really fun project to work on."

"I'm not much of a reader," said Alya. "I'm more of a chronicler, but I think I can find stuff that's my pace. I'll probably start off with a classic action packed story, like Majesta but in novel form."

"I think I wanna start with that American series Percy Jackson," Marinette replied. "Or at least one of the Rick Riordan books, since I'm pretty familiar with them. I feel like I can relate to the characters a lot, especially characters like Annabeth. She's pretty cool."

"Oh, I've heard great stuff about that series," Alya replied with a smile, "but I haven't gotten a chance to read it. Every time I consider picking up a new book or story, something incredible happens with Chat Noir and Ladybug! Plus from what I hear some stuff gets lost in translation but that's gonna happen with literally everything that's not originally French."

"True." Marinette smiled. "This is going to be a lot of fun though!"

"I'll bet," Alya agreed. "I might just do one of the Sherlock books. A master detective? Sign me up! Maybe his deductive reasoning skills will rub off on me and it'll help me figure out who Ladybug is!"

"I doubt it," said Marinette with a laugh. "You can always dream though!" She opened up the door and walked in, setting her stuff down at a reading table and gave Alya a small wave as she started to walk off. "I'm gonna go check the shelves for my books first."

"Okay then," said Alya as she started to set her stuff down. "I'll stay here and guard your stuff."

"Thanks Alya!" Marinette turned away fully and started looking through the shelves.

"No problem," she said with a smile as Adrien and Nino came up behind her.

"Hey Alya," said Nino. "You guys sitting here?"

"Yeah!" She smiled getting an idea. "Hey Adrien, Nino and I are gonna look through the shelves. Mind guarding our stuff for us? Marinette's stuff is here too."

"No problem," he said with a smile as he sat down. "I can wait to get my stuff."

"Thanks!" She gave him a wave and dragged Nino off.

"What's going on Alya," he asked with a frown as she watched from behind the shelves. "You're acting weird."

"I do this all the time," she said assuringly. "I set up opportunities for Marinette to talk to Adrien and she usually messes them up, but recently she's been doing way better! The other day she managed to have a real conversation with him! Can you believe it? Although she did call a cab a type of food but that's another story."

"So you're trying to help her out," he confirmed. "Man, maybe I should help out with Adrien. I mean he's completely oblivious to her crush on him."

"Absolutely not," she said as she turned around sharply, crossing her arms into an X. "I may not have directly told you that Marinette likes him, but if she knows you know she'll kill me, even if it's pretty much obvious to the rest of the class aside from him."

"Fair enough," he said with a shrug as he looked at Adrien. "But how long do you think we'll have to wait?"

"Not long."

* * *

Marinette was checking the shelves where the fantasy books were kept.

"Come on," she said to herself as she ran her fingers back and forth, "R, R, R, R, dang it! It looks like I'll have to go a section over to get the books." She started to walk through the break between the sections, only to get hit with a cart full of books that started to slide off and hit Marinette. A horrified young girl with unruly brown hair, green eyes, and a not entirely shapely figure gasped in horror as she saw Marinette hit the ground.

"Oh my gosh," she said quickly as she went over to her, getting the books off, "are you alright? I'm really super sorry, I didn't mean to hit you with the cart!"

"It's alright," said Marinette with a groan and a smile, "you didn't mean to. I can't think of anyone who would intentionally hit someone with a cart full of books." She started to get up, picking up the books to place them on the cart. "I don't think I've seen you before. Did you just move here?"

"No," replied the girl with a shake of her head as she helped Marinette collect the books up. "I've lived in Paris all my life actually. Gone to the same school district too. You probably just haven't met me before because we've always been in different classes. At least I'm guessing!"

"Well," said Marinette as she stood up and put the books down on the cart before extending a hand, "nice to meet you. I'm-"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," replied the other girl as she placed the books on the cart. "I know. You won that fashion competition and you're the class rep for your class. I'm Angelique Lachapelle from class 3-C, one of the library aides during all my free periods. It's nice to meet you! Well, meet you properly and not just hear about you from other people's conversations." She shook Marinette's hand. "Are you here for the project Mrs. Bustier is doing? I hear it's a long one."

"Yeah but it seems fun," Marinette replied. "I was gonna do one of the Rick Riordan books but I can't seem to find any of them."

"Oh," said Angelique as she started tearing up the pile, tossing around a few books, "I know I had it in here somewhere! Aha!" She smiled as she picked it up. "Someone just turned in the first book of the Percy Jackson series this morning. Is this the one you wanted?"

"Yes," said Marinette with a bright smile as she took it. "Thanks a lot Angelique!" She looked back down and noticed another book with a beige cover that had no bar code on it. "Hey, I think someone ripped the barcode off of this book." She started to pick it up, but Angelique squealed and snatched it out of her hands.

"It's not a library book," she said quickly as she tucked the book close to her chest. "This is a personal thing that I've been working on a lot and I really really don't wanna loose it and have anyone steal my ideas or for anyone to take it and throw it away cause it's hand written or for someone like Chloe to find it and make fun of it so I keep it on me and just please don't ask any questions!"

"Are you… working on a story," Marinette asked slowly. "Wow, that seems really cool! I know you said not to ask you questions but what's it about?"

"It'd take a while to explain," said Angelique meekly, "but the basis is a regular teenage girl gets caught up in destiny's path and meets three strangers from another world with magical powers and goes on adventures with them to defeat a bad guy with a dark past who destroyed their universe in hopes to save everyone. Saying it out loud… it feels kinda dumb."

"It's not dumb," she promised. "Actually that sounds really cool! And you came up with that yourself?"

"Uh huh," she nodded, her cheeks turning red. "I've been working on it since I was in primary school actually. My aunt made me that book herself for me to write my story ideas in. I want to be published one day and be known all around the world. French novelists aren't really well known except for Alexandre Dumas, but I want to change that! I also want to change how people see good and evil. It's not to easy to just make it a whole black and white situation and people forget that, but ultimately, I do want to show that true goodness will conquer over evil and extend a graceful hand to the people in between who just need a chance to recover."

"Well I haven't read any of your work," said Marinette, "but I bet if you put your mind to it then you can write it out. You have a great starting concept, I bet if you just hammer that out you'll get a really good story!"

"That means a lot to me," said Angelique with a smile. "You should probably get started on your project. I hear Mrs. Bustier can get really mad at lateness."

"Like you wouldn't believe," agreed Marinette. "It was nice to talk to you though. We should talk more often!" She started to walk away.

"Thanks Marinette," she replied with a wave before working on putting some of the books back from the cart. "Marinette's just as nice as everyone says she is. I wish I was in her class."

* * *

Marinette smiled as she went to her table, sitting down by her stuff before making a startled noise when she noticed the boy sitting by her and waving.

"Hey there," said Adrien. "It's okay if I sit here right? Alya said it was cool as long as I watched everyone's stuff."

"Of course she did," said Marinette with an annoyed noise. "Yeah it's totally fine! But shouldn't you be getting your own book?"

"I actually already have one in mind," he replied as he went into his bag and pulled out a book, "so I don't need to go look for one. It's a series called The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan. I really like the main character Will so far but I'm only a few chapters in."

"Oh cool," she replied. "What's it about?"

"It's about an orphan who basically gets adopted by this renaissance version of a spy and gets trained to take down evil," he replied. "I haven't finished it yet but I thought it would be a good book to start with for this project. I kinda relate to him."

"That's interesting," said Marinette. "I like fantasy a lot so I decided to start the Percy Jackson books. I've heard a lot of really good things about this series and the writer so I'm finally jumping into it. I always love these stories where a kid that seems normal ends up with magic powers, whether born into them or suddenly receiving them."

"That does sound pretty cool," Adrien agreed. "I used to imagine stuff like that happening to me all the time as a kid, especially since I didn't have any friends growing up. Well, aside from Chloe. She was always really nice to me growing up. I never knew how nasty she could be until I came here."

"Not surprised," said Marinette. "You're a pretty person. I uh, I mean a pretty kind hearted person! Cause like you're so nice!"

"Thanks," he said with a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I just wish she could be nicer. At least she was good at it when she tried."

"I wish she had that kind of drive all the time," said Marinette with a laugh as Angelique came back around and sat at the librarian's desk to help the class check out books. Marinette gave her a wave and she smiled and waved back before helping Max with his items.

"You know her," asked Adrien.

"Not really," she answered, turning back to him. "I talked to her earlier. That's Angelique from class 3-C so she is in our grade. She's just the library aide for this period. She seems nice though, I wonder why I haven't seen her around much before."

"Well I don't spend much time in the library," said Adrien. "My father usually wants me home right after practices and we rarely just come in here and hang out. At least, that's the case for me and Nino."

"That's true," Marinette agreed. "Me and Alya usually hang out at my place or in the park. I actually ended up talking to Angelique because she hit me with her book cart on accident."

"She what?" He looked over her, a little concerned. "You're alright, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine," she assured with a wave of her hand. "I'm so clumsy things like this don't even hurt anymore. Although the books hitting my head did kinda sting a bit." Adrien paused for a moment, bewilderment on his face before he started laughing. "What? Did I say something stupid?"

"Not really," he said as he calmed his laughter. "It's just amazing that you can describe getting hit on the head with books as a little sting. You must have a pretty high pain tolerance."

"You have no idea," she replied with a laugh.

"This is going so well," said Alya excitedly as she watched. "She's having an actual in depth conversation with him!"

"It is pretty great," said Nino. "Maybe now Adrien can get to know Marinette better. She's always running off. It seems like he never gets a chance to know Marinette for who she really is."

"Let's leave them alone," said Alya, "and go actually find our books for our reports. Come on," she started pushing him, "I'm gonna go find the Sherlock book with Irene Adler. She was the best adversary Sherlock ever face and he never out maneuvered her!"

"Well okay," said Nino. "Guess I'll look for something too."

* * *

"I'm sorry Chloe," said Sabrina from another part of the library as she held up her book, "but I can't do your project for you this time. If I would I could but this isn't like when we read a book together in class! Mrs. Bustier wants us to do individual projects and that's 6 books between the two of us! I can't read 6 different books in three weeks! I may like to read but I'm a really slow reader, and then one of us will end up getting a bad grade. If I come home with anything less than a 15 my mother will be furious!"

"Ugh," Chloe groaned out, "fine! I'll just go ask the library gremlin for help then! Maybe she can find me a quick read that I can tolerate. You're so cruel to me Sabrina!" She stormed off to the front of the library, somehow not noticing the conversation between Adrien and Marinette as she went straight up to the desk, where Angelique was writing in her book. She put it down the moment she realized Chloe was coming and gave her the best customer service smile she could muster.

"Can I help you," she asked. "Do you have a book to check out or a question?"

"Yeah, just give me a book that fits my project requirements library gremlin," she ordered. "I want it to be a really fast read, got it?"

"Well I can suggest something," Angelique offered, "but I don't have any books I can just hand over to you here and now. I could give a couple of suggestions. You seem like a girl power person so what about the House of Night series? The first book is a fast read and fits your criteria, and nothing inappropriate for school happens in the first few books! It's checked out right now but it's due tomorrow."

"I can't wait until tomorrow," she snapped. "You need to give me a book and give it to me now!" She noticed the book Angelique had been writing in and started to reach for it. "I'll just take this one!"

"No," shouted Angelique as she grabbed it and tried to pull it away from Chloe. That started to get the attention of the other students, including Marinette, who was looking worried. "This one isn't a library book! This is mine!"

"I need something for my project," Chloe argued as she tore it away from Angelique. "Besides, how bad could it be?" Angelique whimpered as Chloe started flipping through the pages. Marinette stood up and glared, holding out her hand towards Angelique.

"Give Angelique her book back," she said as Alya pulled out her phone to record it. "It's not yours to read through!"

"I'm gonna record this for proof," said Alya. "I have a feeling this is gonna get real nasty real fast since Chloe's involved. Nino, you go get Mrs. Bustier. I think she's in the back helping Ivan."

"Got it," said Nino with a nod as he ran off.

"Oh my God," said Chloe with a laugh. "You know the library gremlin's name and you're defending her? Come on Marinette, I know you're not pretty, but you don't need to be associating yourself with witch nosed girls."

"Chloe that's a horrible thing to say," said Adrien as he stood up with Marinette. "Give her the book back! You don't know how personal that could be to her!"

"Fine," she said with a shrug. "Not like it's any good anyway. It's just notes and I thought I saw a fairy girl with purple hair. I mean how tacky can you get with purple hair. Oh, then there's the green haired guy that she calls "part sea serpent". And look at this!" She held it up to show a sketch of a fluffy haired tall man with lion ears and fangs. "Is this guy like a cat or a teddy bear of something? I can't believe how ridiculous these designs are! What is this guy?" She looked back down at it. "Oh, part Nemean Lion? Who's ever even heard of one of those anyway!" She tossed it behind her as Angelique fumbled with it before catching it. "Whatever that whole thing was, it was terrible!"

"I knew it," she whimpered as she held the book close and stood up from the desk chair, "my ideas are all garbage!" She teared up and ran out of the library.

* * *

"Ah," said Hawk Moth in a sigh as his window opened up and the butterflies started to fly around him, "a shy, lonely girl's precious dreams shattered by a cruel person. That's just like Chloe Bourgeois to do, and her torture of those around never ceases to bring me a perfect victim. That heartbreak and destruction is a perfect environment for my Akuma to grow in." He held out his hand, waiting for a butterfly to land in it before placing his other hand over it and filling it with dark energy. With a push of his hand it started to fly right out of the window. "Fly away my little Akuma, and darken her heart!"

* * *

"What was that Chloe," asked Adrien. "I know you're not the nicest but that? That was beyond cruel!"

"She was rude to me," Chloe answered in turn, crossing her arms over her chest. "She should've suggested a book we had."

"She didn't do _anything_ to you," Marinette shot back. "You know, you can pretend all you like that you're in the right when you act like this but that was just straight up nasty!" She started pointing at Chloe accusingly, her face getting red with anger. "You don't even _know_ her Chloe! She's not even in our class! You think that you can go through life treating people you barely know like trash but the truth is all you are is being a nasty person who's going to drive away every friend in her life! You don't deserve any of the people that do treat you kindly because all you do is treat everyone else like insects in return! Well Chloe, that doesn't make you better than anyone else! It doesn't make you prettier, or more deserving of anything! All you are is one! Giant! Nasty! Bully!" The whole class stared at her in surprise at first before Chloe gasped.

"How _**DARE**_ you talk to me like that," she said as she stalked towards Marinette, poking her in the chest in hopes of pushing the other girl back. "You can't talk to me like that! My daddy's the mayor, and all you are is the daughter of a baker! You're _nothing_ compared to me!"

"Chloe enough," said Adrien as he got in between them. "You need to go apologize to Angelique. You shouldn't have treated her that way!"

"I won't apologize for being right," Chloe said firmly with a small "hmpf".

"I don't have time for this," said Marinette. "I'm going to try and find Angelique and comfort her. She didn't deserve anything you said to her. All she wanted was to write a story. Why do you have to be so cruel and try to ruin that dream?" She started to walk out of the library, leaving her stuff behind.

"What's going on," said Mrs. Bustier as she came with Nino.

"Thank goodness you're here," said Chloe as she pulled out her victim voice, throwing her arm over her forehead as if she had just been traumatized. "Marinette yelled at me and said I was worthless and horrible before running out!"

"That's a big fat lie," accused Alya as she stepped out from behind the shelf. "I caught the whole thing on video, including up until Marinette left. Chloe stole the library assistant's book, which had some personal stuff on it, and then she made fun of her for what she'd written and drawn and kept calling her a library gremlin." She wiggled her phone. "It's all on video."

"And even if it wasn't," said Adrien as he stepped forward, "I'd back up Marinette and say that Chloe was in the wrong here. Chloe started picking on an innocent person. Marinette was just trying to help Angelique. She left to comfort her after the hurtful things Chloe said, but Marinette never said what Chloe just claimed."

"Can I see the video Alya," asked Mrs. Bustier as she held out her hand. Alya nodded and backed up the video for her as Mrs. Bustier watched it. She frowned as she watched and listened before handing the phone back to Alya. "Hm. Well Chloe, this shows you were clearly in the wrong." She looked up towards her. "This kind of unwarranted aggression means you'll be suspended for three days."

"What?! Suspended?!" For the first time in her life, Chloe looked fearful of an authority figure until she smirked. "Sorry Mrs. Bustier, but my daddy is the mayor and he won't stand for this!"

"I think he won't be on your side when he sees this video," said Alya with a wiggle of her phone as Sabrina snuck up behind her. "He can excuse a lot of things because there's no proof but this time we have undeniable proof. You're in big trouble."

"Whoops," said Sabrina as she pretended to trip and knock into Alya. They both yelped as Alya phone went flying, breaking on the ground.

"Looks like there's no proof anymore," said Chloe with a triumphant smirk. Alya grunted as she got up.

"That's what you think," she replied, standing up fully with a smirk as she crossed her arms over her chest. "See, after having Marinette accidentally delete a few of my videos and pictures, I had my phone set up so everything I take pictures of and record gets saved to the cloud. So yeah, I can just send it to the school and your daddy in an email when I get home."

"Chloe," said Adrien as he put a hand on her shoulder, "you need to accept your punishment. You did something wrong and now you have to face the consequences."

"I don't _**do**_ consequences," she snapped at him. "Not in a long time!"

"I don't like this attitude Chloe," he said with a frown. "I don't think I want to talk to you right now. Mrs. Bustier, I'm going to go help Marinette find Angelique."

"You have my permission," said Mrs. Bustier. "If you don't make it to your next class I'll email your teacher about what you and Marinette are doing. When you find her and get her back to her classes then you can come back to me. I'll keep your stuff while you look. And you, Chloe, Sabrina, are both going to the Principle's Office!"

* * *

Marinette sighed as she kept looking around the school. Tikki came out of Marinette's jacket.

"Are you okay Marinette," she asked, a little worried. "I've never seen you snap at even Chloe like that before."

"Chloe went way to far this time," she replied as she went into the locker rooms and started searching. "I mean, it's one thing to do it to us. We grind her gears and such. It makes sense for her to be mean to us. But to insult Angelique like that and show off her private book on top of that? She's not even in our class! That was a new low for Chloe!"

"That's true," said Tikki. "I'm worried for her though. Everyone Chloe humiliates like that usually end up getting Akumatized. That was one of the worst things she's done to date that I can remember."

"I'm worried too," Marinette admitted. "That's why we have to find her. That and she needs some comfort. Chloe said some pretty awful things about her story and insulted her looks."

* * *

Adrien looked around the courtyard, hoping to find Marinette and Angelique.

"Dang it," he said, "We're never gonna find Angelique. Or Marinette."

"You seemed star struck when Marinette spoke to Chloe," noted Plagg as he came out of Adrien's jacket with a piece of camembert. "It was kind of funny but awesome."

"At first when Marinette went off on Chloe I was kind of horrified," he admitted. "I thought she was gonna get Akumatized right then and there because she was so angry. But then I realized while she was talking that Marinette was getting so angry not just on the behalf of someone, it was also someone she didn't even know well. She really felt so passionately for someone she barely knows who got hurt so badly emotionally. That kind of passion, there's just something… really nice about that. And she was so confident and strong to stand up to Chloe like that. It was pretty incredible."

"Sounds like someone's got a crush," Plagg teased as he tossed the slice up in the air before swallowing it whole.

"I do not," he insisted with a light blush. "But lately I've been getting to see Marinette more and more. Normally we don't talk much but we've been able to talk more lately and she's pretty awesome in ways I never noticed before. I mean at her party everyone else threw themselves in harms way for her and I don't think I've ever seen our class work together towards one goal so quickly. It's started to make me realize just how amazing she is."

"Sounds like you're getting closer and closer to her," said Plagg. "Are you sure you wanted to find Angelique and not Marinette?"

"Marinette will be fine," he said. "I remember when Nathaniel was Akumatized she was pretty capable of holding her own."

"I still think you should try getting closer to her," suggested Plagg. "I mean, she's pretty cool and I bet that she has a recipe for cheesy bread made with camembert!"

"You're always thinking with your stomach," said Adrien with a laugh.

"I still think you should get to know her better," said Plagg. "Marinette's a nice girl and you don't really have many other close friends that are girls aside from Chloe. Who knows, maybe she can give you tips on how to win over Ladybug."

"Huh," said Adrien. "I never thought about it like that. But that'd be taking advantage of a friendship."

"Then just do it to be closer and have more close friends than just Chloe and Nino." He reached into Adrien's jacket and grabbed another slice of camembert. "Ah, my favorite cheese!"

"Do you ever stop eating," Adrien asked as he spotted Marinette. "Hide Plagg." He opened up his jacket and let Plagg fly in before waving at Marinette. "Hey Marinette!"

"Oh no," she said softly as she held her jacket open. "Tikki hide!" The kwami nodded and hid in her jacket pocket before she turned to Adrien with a smile and a wave. "Hey Adrien. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be working on your project?"

"Well you should be too," he pointed out with a friendly smile, "but I came to help you find Angelique. She really didn't deserve the treatment Chloe gave her. Usually Chloe has a reason for going off on someone, even if she goes way too far, but this was weird."

"Maybe Chloe was jealous that she'd never had an original idea in her life," Marinette joked.

"That might be it," said Adrien. "I remember when we were little she always wanted to be a princess that needed to be rescued and I was always a knight. When I asked to do something different she cried for like 3 days because she didn't know what other kinds of imaginary games to play."

"Oh… Well I still don't feel bad for what I said to her," Marinette responded. "Just because you feel bad about yourself doesn't mean you get to lash out at others."

"Oh no I agree with you there," said Adrien. "Anyway we should go find Angelique."

"Right! Let's go!"

* * *

Angelique sobbed as she held her book close to her, curled up next to a mop bucket in the janitor's closet.

"I already know I'm not the prettiest," she sobbed, "but why does she hate my designs and my story? Why does everything I try to do turn into trash?! I can't sing, I can't act, I can't do sports, and the one thing I thought I was good at I stink at!" She opened up her book and started looking at her designs. "And to top it all off I don't have anyone I can even talk to about all this!" A butterfly came in underneath the door and went right to her book. Her expression went from sad to angry as the skin around her eyes darkened and a purple butterfly emblem appeared over her face like a mask.

 _"Authoress,"_ came a voice in her head, _"I will grant you the power to turn your stories and characters into a reality and to get your revenge on Chloe Bourgeois! All I ask is that in return you get me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses! Do we have a deal?"_

"Yes Hawk Moth," agreed Angelique, her voice turning raspy and malice filled as darkness covered her.

* * *

Adrien smiled as an idea came to him.

"Our homeroom classes are about to end," he said. "What if we just talk to the kids in Class 3-C and see if they know anywhere she might be hiding. If anyone knows where she is it's got to be them!"

"That's a great idea," said Marinette with a smile. "I think Mrs. Mendeleiev is 3-C's homeroom class, so we should head to the science labs."

"Good, now we have a plan of action," said Adrien as they started heading up there. Once the bell rang the students started leaving the science labs, but everyone they asked gave similar answers.

"Angelique Lachapelle," scoffed a jock guy. "I avoid her like the plague. She's so annoying and literally never stops talking if you strike up a conversation with her. You just can't get a word in."

"Oh her," said another girl with distaste in her voice. "She's… no other way to say it, she's just really weird. I don't really talk to her."

"She is so not one of my friends," asserted another girl. "She thinks she's better than us cause she tested out of some classes and now she spends science and geometry in the library. How pretentious can you get?"

"I don't talk to her all that much," said one of the guys sheepishly. "She's kinda rude. I don't think she means to be but she just says whatever's on her mind and doesn't get how it can be mean, especially if she thinks it's a compliment."

"Never in a million years would I hang with her," said another girl. "If she got told off by Chloe then she deserved it. Probably wouldn't shut up about some stupid show she likes to watch." Right after she finished her sentence she started walking off from the two of them. Adrien and Marinette looked back and forth at each other, unsure of what to say for a few moments.

"Wow," said Marinette, "I didn't know any one group could singularly dislike one person so much. She seemed so nice to me though."

"Well some of it could be misconceptions," reasoned Adrien, "but some of it is probably true in some way. No one's perfect."

"She still didn't deserve the treatment she got from Chloe though," she asserted. "We need to find her ass soon as possible before someone less friendly does."

"Agreed," said Adrien as he started walking. "I feel bad for her though. I mean, imagine having your entire class hate you. No one that we talked to seemed to be her friend."

"I can understand how she feels a bit," said Marinette as she walked with him. "I mean, not that I've ever been so… universally disliked, but it seems like they're treating her unfairly based off of a few things. All that what they said told me is she's smart, chatty, and isn't the best at reading social situations and says the wrong thing sometimes. I can think of a few people like that. It's really not fair to judge her on a few bad traits and a bad first impression."

"That's true," he agreed with a small laugh. "Imagine where we'd be if you'd judged me entirely on our first impression."

"Well what else was I supposed to think," she asked. "I mean, that's what it looked like! It looked like you were sticking gum on my chair!"

"I understand," he said. "I just wish I'd had the courage to say something there, but I didn't want to rat on Chloe. She was my only friend back then, but now I've got friends like you and Nino and Alya. It's nice, and it doesn't make me feel bad for backing up people who say Chloe's being nasty."

"That's sweet," she said with a small blush, "but we should really get back to finding Angelique before something bad happens to her. I mean, she's already missing her next class."

"At least Chloe's finally getting punished for her actions," said Adrien. "Alya caught the whole thing on video. Not even her dad can get her out of this one."

* * *

"I don't deserve this," Chloe whined as she and Sabrina sat in front of Mr. Damocles.

"This video Alya sent me begs to differ," said Mr. Damocles turned his computer monitor around so that they could see it. "Chloe this girl is just a library assistant you had no reason to take her personal belongings, and this time your father can't get you out of trouble."

"This is so not fair," Chloe kept whining, as if it would magically fix the situation if she acted sad about it. "I can't be suspended! My daddy will kill me!"

"Mr. Damocles," begged Sabrina, "be reasonable please! We can't do this suspension."

"You acted horribly and cruelly to someone who just wanted to help the library run smoother," he said firmly, clasping his hands together and placing them on his desk. "My punishment is final. You two are both suspended for three days. Sabrina, I know you didn't help in the mocking but from the email Mrs. Bustier has sent me you tried to help her cover it up and that makes you just as guilty. I'm sure your father will agree with me." The glass behind the principle shattered, making him jump up and startling the two students to the point where they screamed. Floating into the room from an open window was a long, white haired girl with a black mask on her face.

"Chloe Bourgeois," she said with a grin as she held up a notebook with a black cover and a matching black and gold pen, "you've done wrong to everyone in this school and you must be stopped! As the Authoress I will write your ending and it will be today!" She flipped to a page in her book and touched the pen against a character sketch before sending it out. A light was thrown from the page as it formed into a mid tall green haired boy dressed in ancient Mongolian attire. "Kozui, get Chloe Bourgeois and teach her a lesson she'll never forget!"

"With pleasure," he replied as he held up his hands. Chloe and Sabrina screamed as they looked like they were turning into green-scaled claws.

"Someone help me," she screamed as she ran out of the room.

"Wait for me Chloe," shouted Sabrina as she followed suit.

* * *

Adrien and Marinette looked up at Sabrina and Chloe as they came running out of the office.

"Are they running from their punishment," asked Adrien. "They look terrified."

"I think they're running from that guy," said Marinette as she pointed at Kozui. "Who is he? I've never met him before!"

"Maybe he's Akumatized," said Adrien. "You know, like, I think I've heard Chat Noir and Ladybug use that term for normal people who are turned into supervillains!"

"Oh, I think I've heard the term too," she said shyly. "I think we should leave and I'm gonna go this way!" She started to run off to the women's bathroom.

"I'm going this way then," said Adrien as he ran towards the men's bathrooms. He held his jacket open for Plagg. "Did you save some cheese?"

"Yeah," Plagg promised as he held up his hands to prove he wasn't eating any. "I left two slices!"

"Good, cause I have a feeling we're going to need it later." He extended his hand. "Plagg, Claws Out!"

* * *

Marinette looked around the bathroom to make sure it was empty before letting Tikki out of her jacket.

"I was sure if anyone was going to get Akumatized today it would've been Angelique," said Marinette, "but it looks like some other kid older than us got hit by an Akuma."

"It's possible," said Tikki. "Lots of people can have negative emotions at the same time. Honestly I'm glad that it wasn't Angelique. The more negative emotions you feel when you're Akumatized the more powerful you are. Angelique must've felt tons of different bad emotions in that moment, especially if her class didn't like her."

"That's good to know," said Marinette, "but we have to hurry. As much as I don't like Chloe that guy looked ready to seriously hurt her. Tikki, Spots On!" She transformed into Ladybug quickly and ran out of the bathroom, watching and Chloe ran down to the courtyard and straight towards her.

"Oh thank goodness Ladybug," she said as she threw her arms around Ladybug, "this creepy guy is trying to kill me!"

"Please save us," begged Sabrina as she hid behind Ladybug.

"Don't worry," Ladybug promised, "I'll get you both out of here."

"They aren't getting away," hissed out Kozui. "I have to teach them a lesson they'll never forget!"

"How's this for a lesson," asked Chat Noir as he kicked Kozui in the side, effectively knocking him over. He smirked and turned to Ladybug, giving her a bow. "Shall we get going milady?"

"Sounds like a good idea," agreed Ladybug as she grabbed one of Chloe's hands and started running. "We need to get them out of the school. It looks like this guy is after Chloe. Again. And Sabrina."

"Got it," said Chat Noir as he grabbed Sabrina and started running off with her.

"So what did you do this time Chloe," asked Ladybug as they ran out the front door.

"I never do anything wrong," she insisted. "Everyone loves me!"

"Well clearly you upset someone else," said Chat. "Otherwise we wouldn't be running for our lives."

"Come on," said Ladybug as she threw her yoyo, pulling Chloe to her, "I'm gonna take Chloe to her place. You get Sabrina home." She yanked on the yoyo and went swinging away with Chloe screaming.

"What if that guy goes after her," asked Sabrina in worry as she ran with Chat Noir.

"Don't worry," said Chat, "milady's got everything under control." From up above, Authoress chuckled as she watched Chloe and Sabrina escape.

"So Ladybug, Chat Noir, you were able to get them so soon," she said to herself. "There's no doubt about it, they must go to school here, or at least work at Collège Françoise Dupont. Now, back to me Kozui!" She ran the pen over the page, summoning Kozui back to her. A glowing ball of green light floated towards her and sank into the page. She flipped through her book and smirked as she came upon a certain page. "I think it's time that you faced my ultimate bit of revenge! Come on out Leo King!"

* * *

Ladybug paced around Chloe's apartment.

"So you were talking about your suspension when that guy attacked," she asked to confirm.

"Uh huh," Chloe nodded. "He was getting all scaly and disgusting, but I could've sworn I'd seen that exact person before. I just can't remember from where."

"Well you need to think hard," said Ladybug, "because I can't help you until I know who it is. It'll be hard to find the Akuma." She stepped out onto the balcony and contacted Chat Noir on video. "Chat, how are things with Sabrina?"

"They're fine," he said. "She's with her parents. She was a little too shaken up to talk to me about what happened, but from what I could tell the villain was really only after Chloe. I think Sabrina is safe."

"In that case come over to where I am," said Ladybug. "I'm at Chloe's place. It'll take both of us to protect her from whatever that Akuma was."

"There's the thing," said Chat Noir as he started leaving Sabrina's place, "that guy didn't look Akumatized at all. Aside from the green hair and scaly hands he looked like any normal person. Akumatized people all have a mask and don't look like themselves anymore. Ever think that maybe it's another Miraculous holder?"

"I highly doubt it," said Ladybug. "For one we have masks too. They don't exactly come off so it's not like it fell off of our victim's face. But you are right about the fact that he looked pretty normal." Chloe started screaming. "Gotta go!"

"Wait-" Before Chat Noir could say anything else, Ladybug hung up on him. She turned around and saw Chloe running under her bed as a dark skinned man terrorized her.

"Another Akuma victim?!" She ran in and threw her yoyo, catching his hand. "Talk! Who are you and why are you attacking Chloe?!"

"My name is Leo King," he growled out as he turned to her.

"That's such a normal name," said Ladybug. "Usually Akuma victims don't call themselves by their real names."

"I don't know what an Akuma is," said Leo with a growl as he yanked his arm back, throwing Ladybug off balance, "but I will destroy you!" She pulled her yoyo back off his arm and jumped up out of his reach as he tried to claw her up.

"You're gonna have to do better than that Kitty," she said with a laugh. Leo growled. His hair started getting longer and a pair of lion ears started to poke out from underneath his mop of hair. "Wait, Angelique's character?" She gasped. "So Angelique did get Akumatized! And she's bringing her characters to life?"

"Save me Ladybug," begged Chloe from underneath her bed. "I don't wanna be cat food!" A staff extended and rammed right into Leo, knocking him against a wall.

"I think that can be arranged," said Chat as he came into the room. "Looks like we've got two Akuma victims? Wait, why does this guy look familiar?"

"I think he's just the creation of the actual Akuma victim," said Ladybug. "You were right about them looking mostly like normal people." Leo disappeared in a flash of light as someone came up from behind them, clapping.

"Good job Ladybug," said Authoress, "you're completely right! These are my characters and they're here to take down the evil that is Chloe Bourgeois! Trust me, the world will be a far better place with her gone!"

"I'm not that bad of a person," Chloe insisted from under her bed. "I tried being nice once!"

"Oh yes," said Authoress with a laugh, "when you invited your whole class to that big party. You even invited a few people from my class, but you never invited me. I tried to help you at the library, and what did you do? You _**humiliated me in front of your entire class**_!" She held up her pen and book. "Now I'm going to write you a horrible ending worthy of the worst of the worst!"

"Angelique stop," said Ladybug as she stood in front of her, blocking off her path to Chloe. "This isn't the way to deal with a problem!"

"No one ever knew or remembered that name," she said. "My new name is Authoress and all will fear me!" She threw her pen across the page and out of a glowing light came a very tan woman with braided violet hair, matching eyes and golden wings. "Attack her Sialei!"

"As you wish," she said as she held out her hands. She closed her eyes and started glowing with golden light as the bed Chloe was hiding underneath floated upwards.  
"Oh no," whimpered Chloe as she backed up against the wall.

"So if I use my powers on that thing I'm not actually hurting anyone," asked Chat Noir.

"Nope," said Ladybug. "I think it's safe to say that it'll be just fine."

"Alright then," he said as he held up his hand, grabbing pure darkness. "Cataclysm!" He ran forward and touched her forehead right when she opened up her eyes. Sialei screamed in pain before crumpling into dust. "Okay that felt a bit messed up."

"How could you," asked Authoress in horror. "She's been through enough and now you had to kill her?!"

"I didn't know she could feel pain," he insisted, hands up in the air. "I felt bad when I realized she did!"

 _"Use that,"_ said Hawk Moth to her. _"Use their empathy to capture their Miraculouses!"_

"Well now you're going to have to deal with me!" She threw her pen out again as a glowing light came out. "Come on back Leo!"

"We need to get Chloe out of here," said Ladybug as she went towards Chloe while Leo formed. "Sorry about this." Without any actual regret she threw Chloe over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"This isn't very comfortable," Chloe complained as Marinette went to the balcony, throwing her yoyo and swinging across the way.

"Right behind you," said Chat as he extended his staff to follow her. One of his pads disappeared off of his ring. "Well looks like we need to get to our destination quick."

"Don't worry," she said, "I already have the perfect hiding place for Chloe."

"Hawk Moth," said Authoress as she flew up into the air, looking over the city for signs of Ladybug, "I think I might need more power to take them on."

 _"Oh my dear girl,"_ he chuckled out as the butterfly appeared over her, _"you're plenty powerful already. You've only discovered a small part of your powers. I'll leave you to discover them, but consider this. If you can make your characters out of thin air and have them be powerful, imagine how much more powerful they could be without you needing to make a body for them."_

"I understand," she replied before the emblem disappeared. "I think I should head back to school!" She laughed as she zoomed back towards her school.

* * *

"She's very clever," chuckled Hawk Moth. "I don't think anyone's ever tried to contact me first and ask for more power. Perhaps even if she doesn't bring me the Miraculouses she could still lead me straight to their holders!"

* * *

"Can you please watch after her," asked Ladybug. She, Chat Noir, and Chloe were standing in the Dupain bakery, talking with Tom and Sabine.

"Of course we can," said Sabine. "Come now dear, you look terrible, like you've been running for your life."

"I have," she asserted with a glare.

"Chloe," said Ladybug in a warning tone of voice, "be nice. These people are helping hide you from Authoress. The least you can do is be kind to them back. They have no obligation to help you and could leave you to her if they wanted. But they aren't because they're amazing, kind people. So you need to extend the kindness that they show to you back to them."

"Fine," she conceded. "I'm sorry for being rude and all that." Chat Noir looked at his ring as it beeped, stuck on its final pad.

"Sorry for running off," he said, "but I need to go take care of something. Anywhere I can get some privacy?"

"Well there's Marinette's room," said Tom, "but I don't know if she'd want us letting a stranger up there, even Chat Noir."

"I'm sure it's fine," insisted Ladybug. "Besides, as long as he doesn't go through her stuff she'll probably be cool with it. This is an emergency."

"Alright," said Sabine, "but we will be telling her we let someone up there. It'd be rude to not tell her."

"Thanks," said Chat with a wave as he ran upstairs, heading up to Marinette's room. Just moments after shutting the door, his transformation disappeared as Plagg was ejected from his ring.

"That was close," said Plagg as he flew over to Adrien. "Who know what could've happened if Marinette's room wasn't up here?"

"Yeah, that's good," he said as he pulled out a slice of camembert and sat on her bed. "It is a nice room though. Wait…" He stood up and walked over to a board. "Her room is full… of pictures of me? Why would she do that?" Plagg looked around, a little surprised before snickering. Oh was his chosen in for a surprise.

"Adrien you're so dense," Plagg snickered out. "It's obvious that Marinette likes you."

"That's… this feels wrong," he said as he turned away from the pictures. "This is such a violation of privacy! How was I supposed to know that Marinette had a crush on me? I feel horrible for going in her room like this now!"

"You shouldn't," said Plagg as he took another bite. "Besides, Marinette hasn't exactly been subtle. She's always stuttering and getting red around you. I'm surprised you never figured it out before now."

"I thought she just still didn't like me much," Adrien admitted. "I mean, it did look like I stuck gum on her seat. Even if she knows I didn't I thought that we were finally getting past that."

"Or maybe you were super nice to her and it made her start to like her," suggested Plagg. "You're a pretty nice guy when you're Adrien and you're so respectful to her."

"I guess," he said with a sigh. "I still feel bad for violating her privacy like this since I didn't mean to."

"But now you know why Marinette acted the way she did," Plagg pointed out. "Besides, maybe you should try getting closer to Marinette. You don't really know anything about Ladybug as a person, you just know her personality a bit. You know Marinette better than you know ladybug."

"I don't wanna talk about this," said Adrien as he stood up. "Come on, we need to get back to Ladybug." He held out his fist. "Plagg, Claws Out!"

* * *

Ladybug was still taking with Sabine and Tom when Chat Noir came back down.

"Something wrong," she asked. "You look guilty or something. What, did you go through her stuff?"

"No," he swore, "I just, it's complicated okay? What's our plan of action Ladybug?"

"Well first we should leave the shop," she said as she walked out, waiting for Chat to follow her. "I think that the Akuma is hiding in the book she carries around. All we need to do is get the book and destroy it."

"And how do we get it from her," asked Chat Noir. "She floats. She could just fly out of our grasp."

"We use my yoyo to try and catch her," said Ladybug. "At least, that's the plan for now." She frowned, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay? You really look out of it."

"I'm fine," he promised. "I just want to get that girl back to normal. I don't think I've ever seen such an angry villain before."

"I mean, she said Chloe embarrassed her in front of an entire class," said Ladybug, "but it's not like Chloe hasn't done that to just about everyone in her own class. Maybe that girl doesn't have any friends and that just made whatever Chloe said hurt even more."

"Poor girl," said Chat, looking towards the sky. "I can understand how she feels. It's pretty lonely, having no real friends." Ladybug gave him a worried look, reaching a hand out to him. She'd never seen him look so vulnerable before.

"Chat?" He shook his head and smiled at her.

"I'm fine milady," he said. "Come on, we should try and find Authoress."

"Oh you won't need to look for long," said Authoress as she floated up above. "I'm right here and I'm ready to take your Miraculouses!"

"Oh yeah," asked Ladybug with a smirk, "well you'll have to capture us first and we'll never let that happen!"

"I won't even have to lay a finger on you," Authoress declared as she threw her pen forward. "Attack my lovely characters!" Several people came forward, all of them looking human, and yet not human at the same time.

"She can control all these characters at the same time," said Ladybug in shock as she looked around. "Chat, do you think you can get rid of them all again?"

"In one move," he asked before contemplating the question as they were surrounded. "I could I guess, but I'd only have enough food on my to transform one more time. Not to mention even if they aren't real people, they still feel pain. I want to avoid doing that if I can."

"Then we'll consider it a last resort," said Ladybug as she grabbed his wrist. "For now, I think we need to get out of here! There's too many characters to fight right now!" She threw her yoyo and swung off with Chat Noir.

"I'll get you two," she replied with a smirk as she turned to two very specific characters. "Sialei, Kozui, I want you two to go after them."

"Yes Authoress," they replied as they started to follow them.

* * *

Ladybug didn't stop swinging until they were at the pyramid in front of the Louvre.

"She's one of the most powerful Akumatized people we've ever faced," said Ladybug as she paced around, trying to think. "These characters of her, they seem to have their own sense of agency. They still follow her orders but they're like their own people. Anytime there have been minions in the past they've just blindly followed the orders of their master. This is different and I'm not sure I like this."

"That is a little weird," agreed Chat. "Maybe her characters are like people to her. After all if you don't have friends you make them up. They're like imaginary friends, but she has the power to make them real."

"We need to stop her," said Marinette, "but how?"

"You won't be able to," said Sialei as she walked over towards Marinette. Unlike before, she had a mole on her forehead and hazel eyes.

"You're cornered," said Kozui as he came up from the other side. He looked a little different as well, with slightly darker skin and brown eyes.

"What should we do milady," asked Chat as he held up his staff.

"We have no choice," said Marinette. "We have to fight them!" She dodged an attack from Sialei, ducking down.

"I guess we have no choice," said Chat with a grunt as he started to fight Kozui. "Something about this guy seems different. Like he's off from his earlier appearance."

"It doesn't matter," said Ladybug as she avoided a kick from Sialei. "We have to fight them! Maybe they get tired like people and they'll return back to Authoress's book!"

"Help…. Me…" said Sialei in a different voice than before. Now her voice was filled with a lot of effort as she kept fighting Ladybug. "Please… Ladybug…"

"Huh?" She jumped back and looked over Sialei. "Help?"

"Shut up," Sialei grunted down at herself, her eyes turning more violet. "You're my body now!"

"What do you mean by that," asked Ladybug as she looked over Sialei. Sialei's head came up but this time when she spoke, Alya's voice and eyes were there.

"Save me!" Sialei shook her head and Alya's eyes and voice were gone. "Shut up! We must serve the Authoress!"

"Alya," gasped out Ladybug in horror. "Chat Noir, don't use your powers on them! I think that Authoress took over people's bodies! Sialei is Alya!"

"Then who's this guy," asked Chat as he pushed Kozui on the ground.

"Help me," he said with effort in Nino's voice. Chat gasped when he recognized it.

"Nino? No, this is just cruel! Why did she have to do this to Nino?"

"That's how she controls so many characters at a time," Ladybug reasoned. "It probably takes less energy to insert them into people than give them new bodies! Hurry, we have to knock them out! Maybe then they'll go back to normal!"

"Works for me," said Chat, "but I don't know if I can hurt someone who's begging for help."

"It hurts," said Ladybug as she grabbed Sialei's arm, "but we've gotta do it if we want to save these people!"

"Let go of me," shouted Sialei before wrenching her arm out of Ladybug's grasp. A pair of gold and green wings appeared from her back and let her fly up into the air.

"Sialei must be part fairy," said Ladybug. "That's why she can fly!" Sialei dove back down towards her, but Ladybug moved out of the way just in time for her to hit the ground instead.

"Esha fiashia na salanari eishi kra," said Kozui.

"What was that," asked Chat before he jumped out of the way of a tendril of water. "Okay so this guy has magic and can control water! What the heck?!"

"We have to figure out how to defeat them," said Marinette as she tossed up her yoyo. "Lucky Charm!" Out of the burst of heart came a mirror with a red back covered in black spots. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Well at least we can make sure we look fabulous before we go," joked Chat.

"Not helpful," Ladybug replied as she looked around. She noticed the pyramid, Chat's staff, Kozui's water, and a nearby building.

"I have an idea," she said as she started running, tucking the mirror under her arm before throwing her yoyo. "You need to keep them both distracted while I do it!"

"Got it," he said with a smirk as he held up his staff. "Come on guys, why go after Ladybug when you can have a sweet black cat like myself!"

"You think you're slick," grinned Kozui as he threw a tendril of water at Chat. "You think you're such hot stuff? Why don't you cool down?!"

"Sorry," said Chat as he jumped over the water and on the side of the pyramid, "but cats and water don't mix well."

"You'll be minced meat when we're through with you," said Sialei as she mumbled, throwing her arms forward as vines burst out of the ground, holding down Chat Noir by his ankles and wrists.

"Clever," he responded, "but I can get out of this easily if I need to." He yanked against the vines, breaking them and jumping up onto the side of the pyramid. "Is that all you can do guys?"

"I can do more than that," said Kozui as he threw up a wall of water to slam down on Chat Noir.

"Chat move," shouted Ladybug. Chat jumped out of the way as Ladybug perfectly angled the mirror to reflect the light off the side of the pyramid. When it did the light became more intense as it went through the water, making the two characters yelp and throw up their arms to try and regain their sight. "Hit them with your staff!"

"You've got it Ladybug," said Chat as he extended his staff, hitting them both fairly hard in the back of the head. They hit the ground rather hard, darkness leaving them like it would a regular Akumatized person. Ladybug jumped down from the top of the building towards them.

"I don't want to leave them here," she said as she looked around, "but we don't have any choice." Her earrings started to beep as a spot disappeared. "And I'm getting ready to transform back and we're nowhere near close to defeating Authoress."

"Look on the bright side," encouraged Chat, "this is gonna be GREAT practice for when we finally face Hawk Moth. I mean, her powers are pretty similar, but not exactly like them."

"You're right about that," said Ladybug. "With Hawk Moth's villains, none of them can regain any sense of control of themselves up until they're de-evilized. If she got Alya and Nino then the rest of the characters are probably people from m- I mean that specific class."

"Well then we use that to our advantage," said Chat. "If there's people in the class who are fans of us we just try and get them to fight back against it so we can make it a one on one battle between us and Authoress."

"Sounds like a plan," said Ladybug. "But first, I need to go and let my kwami eat something. Let's meet back at the Eiffel Tower."

"Alright then milady," said Chat as he ran off. Ladybug smiled at him before going to an alley and transforming back there.

"That was a good move," said Tikki while Marinette reached into her purse and pulled out a plastic baggy with cookies, handing one to Tikki to eat. "Authoress is really powerful, just like I said she'd be."

"Yeah I know," said Marinette in a worried tone. "I don't think we've ever faced such a powerful enemy. Chat already had to charge back up once, and now Authoress made it so he can't make the same move again without hurting an actual person."

"She's learning," said Tikki with a frown. "Most Akumatized people don't have more than one way to use their powers, but she can summon her characters and seemingly make them actual people and turn real people into her characters. How much pain and anger was she hiding all this time?"

"I don't know," Marinette replied. "I feel really bad for her though. Her class is never going to trust her ever again after this."

"Well you can always extend that hand of friendship to her," said Tikki as she finished off her cookie. "When this is all over, she's going to need one."

"Yeah," agreed Marinette, "but for now we have to focus on getting her back to normal. Tikki, Spots On!" She transformed back, throwing her yoyo to swing over to the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully, Chat Noir was already in the tower, grinning as he waited for her.

"So, any idea where Authoress is Ladybug," he asked with a plastered on grin, leaning on one of the support beams.

"I have one," she said, "and it's pretty simple." She walked towards the edge, looking out at Paris. "We should be able to see her from here and then we can go to her."

"Sounds good," said Chat Noir as he looked around. "So Ladybug, you know how you feel like I'm acting strange?"

"Well yeah," she replied. "Every since the bakery. Why?"

"I just found out something about a friend," he said. "It's obvious in hindsight but I feel kinda stupid for not noticing before. I'm afraid it'll make things awkward between us now. That's all. Just thought I'd get it off my chest. Hopefully I won't be too distracted by it if I say it out loud."

"Chat, you can handle any situation," she assured him as she turned around, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're brave and quick on your feet. But something tells me that's not all that's bugging you. We've been partners for a while now. I'm getting good at reading you."

"Of course you are," he said with a small smile. "My kwami said something that struck a chord with me earlier. He said that I don't really know you very well as a person, just who you are as Ladybug. It got me to thinking, and he's right. I know you don't want us to know who the other is, and that's fair, but I also just don't know you. I don't know who you are as a person. I don't know what you like to eat, or your favorite color, or any of that stuff that partners and friends know and at times, it kills me. We don't really know each other and we should if we're going to work together like this. I was thinking that maybe when this is over, we could, I don't know, take some time to just talk? Get to know each other as people."

"I…" she looked down for a few moments. She had never seen Chat act so vulnerable in front of her. The fact that he was so open and honest made her feel a little strange. "I don't know… we can talk about it after we save Angelique and the rest of Paris. But you have a point. We don't really know each other."

"That's good enough for me," he said with a relieved smile. He looked back out and frowned. "I can't see Authoress from here but we should check on the Dupain-Chengs and make sure Chloe hasn't driven them insane."

"Good idea," Ladybug chuckled out as she started to call them. "Hello, this is Ladybug. I was just calling to make sure that what I brought wasn't driving you crazy."

"Hello Ladybug," came Authoress's voice. Ladybug froze, a look of horror on her face. "Hm, I wonder why your first thought was to hide Chloe Bourgeois in a bakery with Sabine and Tom Dupain-Cheng."

"Did you hurt them," she asked, making Chat look a little alert.

"Of course not," she replied. "Unlike Chloe, the Dupain-Chengs are all decent people. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to punish them! They've been tied up here while my characters look for Chloe. Oh, looks like they found her."

"Save me Ladybug please," begged Chloe. "I promise with all my heart I'll never be mean again if I survive this!"

"Angelique this is enough," said Ladybug. "Please, let the Dupain-Chengs go, and Chloe too! I know she hurt you but is this really what you want to do?!"

"Tell you what," she said, "meet me at the bakery and hand over your Miraculouses, and I'll let the Dupain-Chengs go. I might not be so generous with Chloe, but I might just let her go if you get here." She hung up.

"Authoress has my par-the Dupain Chengs," Ladybug corrected as she looked up at Chat Noir, her face full of worry. "They're in serious danger!"

"Then we have to time to loose," he responded. "Come on!"

* * *

Authoress stood outside the bakery, the Tom and Sabine unconscious and hanging from their own bakery sign. Next to Authoress was Chloe in a cage made of roots, whimpering inside it as she gripped the bars.

"Please let me go," she begged. "I'll be nicer I promise!"

"You had your chance," Authoress snapped. "Now you have to face the penalty for your cruelty!" She smirked as Chat Noir and Ladybug came on the scene. "Ah, so glad you two could make it." All of her characters started to surround them. "Here's the deal. Hand over your Miraculouses and I let these two go. Refuse and they'll be taken to the highest building in Paris and dropped. I'll give you five minutes to choose."

"And how are you gonna do that," asked Ladybug as she clutched her yoyo tightly."

"Why, by using my characters," she said with a chuckle as they stepped closer.

"I recognize that one," said Chat Noir as he noticed one with multicolored dreadlocks. "I think that's Mylene." He looked at another one with hair falling in his eyes. "And Nathaniel. Nathaniel you can fight this! This isn't you, you're a kind person who loves art! You're not someone who wants to hurt people!"

"Mylene, you can fight this," said Ladybug. "Are you going to let her bully you into doing what she wants?! You're stronger than that Mylene!" The two mentioned characters started to clutch their heads like they were in pain.

"Chat… Noir…"

"Lady… bug…"

"It's working," Ladybug exclaimed. She turned towards someone who she thought was Rose. "Rose, you're an amazing, creative kind hearted person! I know you can fight against this! I don't want to hurt anyone in any capacity! You know that this is wrong!"

"Ivan," said Chat Noir to another, "you can't let anyone else tell you to be someone else! You're your own person, not a character in the Authoress's story! Fight it, fight them!"

"Come on Juleka," said Ladybug to another one. "You know you don't want to do this! You're so strong and you can fight against this! You have the strength, use it!" They all started to struggle with their identities as characters and as people, started to flash back and forth between their character forms and their true selves.

"What are you doing," Authoress hissed out. "You can't get the characters to leave! They'll stay in there! All you're doing is making them fight!" An idea came to her. "That's it. If they can't stop struggling then neither will you!" She opened up her book, touching her pen to Leo's page. "I hope you like lions Ladybug!" She threw the glowing light towards Ladybug, only for Chat Noir to jump in the way, holding her tightly as the ball collided with him. When it did it sent them btoh skidding several feet back as Chat Noir groaned.

"Chat Noir," said Ladybug in horror as he pulled away and gripped his head tightly, flashing back and forth between Leo King and himself. "Fight it Chat Noir! I can't do this without you!"

"Lady… bug," he struggled out as he kept flashing back and forth, "you can do this… beat her!"

"I will," she promised as she looked up at Authoress. "This ends now! You've hurt people I care about and my partner! This won't stand!" She threw her yoyo up in the air again. "Lucky Charm!" The hearts dissipated as a compact fell into her hands.

"How is that any help," yelled Chloe. "Ladybug you need to save me!"

"Shut up," ordered Authoress. "No one wants to hear you talk you giant jerk!" Ladybug looked around for things to help her out, seeing the bars of the cage, a nearby window, and Authoress's book.

"Got it," she said with a smile. "Hey Authoress, I bet you won't be able to transform me into one of your characters!"

"Don't doubt me," she replied as she threw a glowing green ball of light at Ladybug. Thankfully, now that she was she was able to dodge it easily, jumping and flipping over each attempt to turn her. "Argh! Why won't you just stay still or run in one direction!"

"Guess I'm just too skilled and lucky," Ladybug replied as she threw the compact at Authoress. She moved to the side, letting it zoom past her head.

"You missed," she mocked.

"Guess again!" The compact hit a wall, bouncing off of it and hitting the bars of Chloe's cage before hitting Authoress's hands. She yelped from the pain, dropping her book and pen as Ladybug dove for the book.

"No," called out Authoress as Ladybug got up, ripping the book in half. She held her yoyo, opening it up like na ladybug's wings. "No more evildoing for you little Akuma!" She threw her yoyo to capture it. "Time to de-evilize!" She drew it back and opened up the yoyo, letting out the pure white butterfly. "Bye-bye little butterfly." She grabbed the compact she had made and threw it up in the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" She smiled as the ladybugs flew all around, fixing all of the damage from the Akuma, including freeing Chloe as Authoress turned back into Angelique.

* * *

"I may not have been as close as I was before," said Hawk Moth, "but I learned so much from this." He laughed to himself. "So, Ladybug and Chat Noir go to my son's school? That has been most useful, so thank you for responding so quickly Ladybug and Chat Noir."

* * *

"Oh thank you Ladybug," she exclaimed as she threw arms around her. "I thought I was a goner for sure!"

"You need to keep your promise," said Ladybug as she pushed Chloe away. "Chloe, your meanness caused this whole situation. You really need to work on being nicer for more than the length of time of a party. I know it'll be hard at first but eventually it'll become second nature to you. I'll be watching. Now go see your father." She nodded and ran off. Ladybug looked towards Chat Noir, who was back to himself, but holding his head.

"My head is killing me," he groaned. She sighed in relief and hugged him tightly with relief, much to his surprise.

"You need to stop doing that," she said. "You always put yourself between me and harm. You worry me so much every time you do that." He smiled and hugged her back.

"I promise I'll try not to." Her earring beeped, making him smile as he pulled away. "I'll be waiting at the Eiffel Tower if you wanna talk." He started to run off.

"Okay." She smiled at him and turned to Angelique, grabbing her book and handing it to her. "I know Chloe said some pretty awful things, and I'm really sorry about that, but so far your story seems really cool! I'm sorry that Chloe had nothing nice to say about it." Angelique looked up at her with some small tears in her eyes.

"What if Chloe was right," she asked. "What if my ideas are terrible?"

"Then you don't listen," Ladybug answered, sitting next to her. "You keep on with your ideas. Just keep writing until you finish your story, and never let anyone else try and tell you that they're bad. Any idea seems weird out of context. But when you write that in context story, it'll be great. I'd love to see it published someday." Her earrings beeped again. "Try and make some friends to share the story with, alright?" She threw her yoyo and swung away, leaving Angelique smiling as she held her book close to her chest.

* * *

Marinette stood in another alley, watching Tikki eat.

"Should I go talk to Chat Noir," she asked. "I mean, he has a point, but what if I say something to give myself away?"

"It's impossible," said Tikki. "A Miraculous protects the identity of their holder. You can only give it away if you say something incredibly obvious or tell him your name. Besides, I think it's safe to say you should get to know him better. Just like you saw today, there's a lot about him that you don't know." She finished off her cookie. "There's no harm in it, aside from getting home a little late today."

"You're right," said Marinette. "Besides, I think there's more to Chat than I realized. I've never seen him so upset before. If this'll make him feel better then I should do it. Tikki, Spots On!"

* * *

Chat Noir sighed as he looked out over Paris.

"She isn't coming is she?" His ears lowered in disappointment.

"Who's not coming," asked a voice behind him. His ears perked up when he turned around and saw her, smiling brightly.

"You came Ladybug!" She smiled and went to stand next to him, looking over Paris.

"Of course I did," she replied. "You're right about one thing. We don't know each other very well and we should. So, let's talk. What's your favorite color?"

* * *

Chat Noir extended his staff to open his bedroom window for him before changing into Adrien again, taking out a wedge of cheese and handing it to Plagg.

"That was nice," he said with a smile as he sat down on his couch, a lovestruck expression on his face. "Who knew Ladybug liked the color pink? Or that she hates radishes?"

"I hate radishes," said Plagg as he kept eating. "But something's still bothering you, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I don't know what to do about Marinette. I mean, she's a really cool girl, but I don't feel that way about her. I don't want to break her heart."

"Adrien," said Plagg, "I'm gonna tell you flat out, you focus too much on Ladybug to know whether or not you like Marinette, and that's all the advice I can give. If you want anymore help, I'd suggest talking to your dad. I mean, he got married and had you so he has to have some experience in relationships. Kwamis don't really do that so I can't help you beyond what I've said."

"But will he make time for me," Adrien asked himself as he picked up his phone before sighing. He dialed his father number, and surprisingly he picked up.

"I heard there was another attack at your school," said Gabriel. "I think you may need to transfer schools. The amount of chaos at your school makes me uneasy."

"No Father," begged Adrien. "Please don't transfer me! That's not even why I called!"

"Well then, why did you call?"

"It's," he hesitated for a moment before sighing, "it's about crushes and relationships and all that. I'm in the dark Father. I don't know what to do."

"I see," he said, his voice soft and sympathetic. "I'll have Natalie cancel my plans for this evening."

"Wait, really?" Adrien visibly perked up at that.

"If my son needs me then of course. I'll be there shortly." He hung up. Adrien smiled brightly as he put his phone in his pocket.

"He's actually gonna come and talk to me about this," he said in astonishment. "I can't believe it. He's never canceled anything for me before."

"Well this is love we're talking about," Plagg pointed out. "He wants you to be happy."

"Point taken."

* * *

Not long later, Gabriel knocked on Adrien's door.

"Come in," he said, watching as his father came in with an expression he really hadn't seen before. It was almost sad and sympathetic. Regardless, Gabriel went to sit down next to Adrien, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Want to tell me all about it," he asked.

"I'm just really confused," Adrien started. "There's this one girl I really like who's courageous and witty and smart and so, so talented and amazing, but she's never looked my way. Well, not like that at least. I really like her, but it seems like she doesn't care about me that way. We're really good friends, but that's all I feel like we are."

"That's never easy," said Gabriel. "But if she can't see the amazing, wonderful son that you are, then maybe you need to think about moving on."

"That's just it though," he replied. "I don't think she knows me sometimes. And then there's this other girl. She's pretty awesome too. She's funny and she's kind and she's smart. She likes to design and makes these amazing outfits, and she's really cool too. Earlier today Chloe was just awful to this girl that she didn't even know, and Marinette defended her. Neither of them knew her but Marinette was ready to fight on the behalf someone she didn't know just because she knew what Chloe was doing wasn't right. It was so courageous and I never knew she had that kind of courage in her. I thought we were just friends but now I found out that she likes me and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about that! I mean, I don't think I like her, but then a friend pointed out that maybe I just like that other girl so much that I haven't left room to even think about other people. Is that true?"

"It can be," said Gabriel, "but it could also just be you're confused about finding this out. It's always a strange feeling when you find out someone likes you." He chuckled. "I remember things like that happening when I was about your age. I think what you should do is try and talk to this girl you know likes you. Sometimes when you're so focused on something out of reach, you don't see the things that are right in front of you. Now, don't completely give up on the first girl. I'm sure you can get her to see how amazing you are. After all, you're my son. But I think you need to let in room for you to meet other people. You're young, you should get the chance to fall in love over and over until you meet the right one and not focus so much on one person."

"That's some really good advice," said Adrien as he hugged his father. "Thanks Father." Gabriel smiled and hugged his son back.

 **Song Of Hope: Yep that was really long! But I got the story I wanted out! Thanks for reading guys!**


	2. The Revealer

**Song Of Hope: I know I said I was done but I wanted to answer that question from Miraculous Lover. My reasoning for Gabriel dropping his schedule for Adrien that Hawk Moth's entire motive for what he's doing is to bring back his wife no matter the cost. As far as love in concerned it has been CLEARLY shown that it's a priority of his. If that's the case then he would care deeply about his son's love life and finding someone to make him happy. Gabriel is cold and distant to Adrien most of the time when he shouldn't be but he still clearly cares about his son, and when Gabriel's view on love and Adrien's need for advice coincided how could he NOT show up to support his son? Just a little food for thought. Hopefully this chapter will be much shorter than my previous one! R &R!**

Adrien was walking up to the school next to Nino, a distraught look on his face as they entered the courtyard.

"I just don't know what to do about Marinette now," he said. "I mean my father gave me some really great advice but when it comes to actually carrying it out?"

"I think he's right for once," said Nino. "Marinette's a pretty cool chick and I think you should at least give her a chance. I don't know the girl you've been so focused on, but you haven't even given any of the girls who like you a second look, and trust me, there's a lot." Nino pat Adrien on the shoulder. "Besides, she deserves a shot to be considered."

"I just don't know her that well," said Adrien. "I mean what I do know about her I like. I mean she's funny and brave and smart and all that, but I don't even know much about her as a person."

"Talking is key," said Nino as they came upon the stairs to the library. "Just be yourself. It's the advice you gave me. Even if I didn't end up going with Marinette and ended up dating Alya, it was still really awesome advice."

"I mean, you liked Marinette," he pointed out, "and then Alya. I don't know if I like Marinette or not."

"Only way to find out is to get to know her better," said Nino. "That's how Alya and I ended up dating. What, do I need to lock you and Marinette in a zoo cage?" He snickered at that, but Adrien's face just went red.

"Not funny Nino," he scolded. Nino just kept snickering as he opened the door to the library.

"Come on it was kinda funny," Nino replied as he sat down with Adrien at a reading table. "How far are you into your book?"

"I didn't get a chance to read after that incident with Chloe yesterday," Adrien pointed out, "so I'm exactly where I was yesterday."

"At least you're not the only one in that position," said Nino. "On the bright side, Chloe and Sabrina won't be here to bug us and we can actually get stuff done."

"Hey guys," said Alya with a smile and a wave, Marinette standing behind her. "Mind if we sit with you guys?"

"No problem," said Nino while Adrien's face went red and he stiffened up. The two girls sat down, with Marinette smiling at Adrien.

"Hey Adrien," she said with a wave. "Get any further on your book? I managed to get a chance to start mine after school."

"After I went and brought it to you," Alya reminded with a playful shove. "I was the real victim there, and yet you went home after school?"

"Well uh, I did find Angelique but her Akumatized self told me to go home or else," she lied, over acting to compensate. "Normally I would put my foot down and say "no, it's time to step up" but she seemed especially angry and negative, like no Akumatized person you've ever witnessed for your Ladyblog!"

"That's true," Alya agreed. "That girl was crazy powerful. But still, you're lucky I went back and got your stuff for you from Mrs. Bustier."

"I did the same for Adrien," said Nino. "Came over to his house last night with his stuff. Poor guy was really drained. Apparently he'd gotten knocked out by Angelique." He elbowed Adrien, who was just frozen in place. "Adrien?"

"What? Uh, yeah?" He stood up. "Excuse me for a minute." He went off to hide behind some shelves, leaving his friends standing there blinking.

"Is something wrong," Marinette wondered. "I don't think I've seen him act like that before."

"Eh, it's private," said Nino. "Let's just leave him alone."

* * *

Adrien looked back at the group from behind some shelves before looking in his jacket.

"What do I do Plagg," he asked. "I just feel so awkward around her now! I don't know what to say. What if I give away that I know? I don't want to make her feel awkward or embarrassed."

"Just act normal," said Plagg. "Talk to her like you did before. At least she isn't stammering like crazy and all red faced and running off now. Take advantage of that to get to know the real Marinette."

"I feel like things aren't that simple," Adrien sighed out before looking back at the group. "But one thing's for sure. If I'm gonna get to know Marinette better, I wanna know the one who stood up to Chloe so thoroughly."

"Well that's all part of Marinette," said Plagg as he started to eat a slice of camembert. "Seriously aren't you a model? You know you have TONS of girls who like you but you don't get flustered around them. Why should you let Marinette be any different? Unlike of course you like her." Plagg smirked as he teased Adrien.

"Oh zip it Plagg," said Adrien in embarrassment as he let his jacket close back over Plagg. He looked back at the group before leaning against the shelf, sighing, and then taking in one more deep breath. "Plagg's right. I can do this." Putting on his brave face, he went back to the table, sitting back down. "Sorry about that. Anyway, I'm excited to do this project." He reached into his bag and pulled out his book. "Although I'll probably be rereading my next two books."

"Me too," said Marinette. "I already have them in mind, but I wanted to try something new too."

"Well then why don't we read our books," he suggested, opening up his. "I didn't get a chance to yesterday."

"Oh," said Marinette before smiling and getting hers out. "Alright then." Alya gave Nino a look that said "what's going on" but Nino just replied with a hand wave that meant "I'll tell you later". Alya huffed but got her book back out and started reading.

* * *

"You're not gonna come home and eat lunch with me," asked Marinette with a frown. "But we always go to my place for lunch!"

"Sorry," said Alya with a shrug, "but something came up. Come on, I don't always go to lunch with you. Sometimes I head home and eat there, or I go to the hotel my mom works at and eat there." She put a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "I know I normally talk to you first but this time I didn't have any heads up. Sorry Marinette, but I promise I'll eat with you tomorrow."

"Well alright," said Marinette as she started to walk off. "I'll see you when I get back from lunch then."

"See you then," said Alya with a smile as she waved her off. Once Marinette was out of earshot Alya turned around, scanning the crowd for Nino. Once she spotted him walking away from the school she went right up to him.

"Alright spill," she said as she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "What's going on with Adrien?"

"Okay, you have to promise not to get mad at me, okay," he rubbed the back of his neck, "because I promise I didn't tell him a thing!"

"I promise I won't get mad," she asserted. "Now spill!"

"Adrien found out about Marinette's crush on him," he explained. "I don't know how and he won't tell me how but now he kinda feels awkward around her."

"What?! Seriously." She sighed in annoyance, palm on her forehead. "If Marinette finds out she'll go right back to that shy, stammering mess she was before! That's not good for either of them!"

"This could be a good thing though," said Nino in an attempt to be optimistic. "He's kinda willing to give her a chance. He just wants to get to know her better first. That and he has someone he already likes."

"Seriously?" Alya started going through pages on her phone. "I don't remember anything like that before. Nothing on any of his profiles or him meeting up with anyone."

"Well he says this girl never looks at him twice," Nino explained. "He won't tell me her name but he's sure she's not interested in him. Or at least pretty sure she's not interested in him. I told him to give Marinette a shot since he was so focused on this other girl he never even considered other people."

"This is a sticky situation," said Alya with a sigh. "Where are you going for lunch?"

"My house," he replied. "Wanna come? I don't think you've met my parents yet."

"I would but I normally eat with my mom when I don't eat with Marinette and I already sent her a text telling her I'm coming so I can't cancel," she said. "You can come with if you want though. My mom's a chef so she has totally awesome food. We gotta focus on a game plan for those two when we're done eating though."

"I mean, we can also play some games or something," he suggested as he started walking again. "Our lives don't have to be put on hold to help Marinette and Adrien."

"That's true," she agreed, "but I also really want this situation dealt with. Adrien couldn't ask for a better girlfriend, aside from Ladybug." She paused for a moment. "Do you think-?" She shook her head, smiling. "Nah, Adrien's crush can't be Ladybug. He's almost never around when Ladybug is and he's hardly ever interacted with her. If he's fallen that hard for this girl then it'd have to be someone he knows well enough. Besides, even if it was Ladybug, then he'd have to fight Chat Noir and while Adrien might be a great fencer, he's no match to super powers."

"True," Nino chuckled out. "So, food, game plan, and then something for us, right?"

"Yep."

* * *

Marinette sat in her family's dining room, looking down at her pasta and poking it with a fork while her parents looked at her in concern.

"What's wrong Marinette," asked her mother. "You look down."

"It's just," she sighed. "I thought Adrien and I were finally able to talk and have normal conversations, but earlier today it seemed like he wanted to avoid talking. I can't help but wonder if maybe I said something."

"I'm sure you didn't," her father encouraged as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Sometimes guys are just weird or they don't wanna talk. Maybe something came up at home that he doesn't want to talk about, or maybe he's distracted by something else. It's most likely not your fault. You're a sweet kindhearted girl Marinette. I'm sure he knows that." She smiled at her father's kind words.

"Thanks Dad." She started eating her food, which made her parents smile.

* * *

"Good food as always mom," said Alya as she sat in the hotel restaurant next to Nino, eating a plate with chicken and veggies with her mother smiling down at her.

"Your food's amazing Mrs. Césaire," Nino added. "No wonder you work in such a nice place."

"Thank you," she said as she sat down across from them, eating her own plate. "So you're Nino? I haven't gotten a chance to meet you but it's nice to finally get a chance." She extended a hand to him.

"Thanks Mrs. C," said Nino as he shook her hand. "Now I see where Alya gets her good looks from!"

"Stop," said Alya, playfully shoving him before getting a serious expression on her face. "Seriously, she'll never stop talking about it."

"Oh come on Alya," her mother teased, poking her daughter's cheek. "I'm not that bad."

"Yes you are," Alya insisted. "You really are that bad. You keep going around telling everyone you're 29."

"Well I could be worse," she said. "I could be like your aunt and telling everyone I'm 25. Her aunt is older than me by the way. By 6 years."

"I see," Nino chuckled. "I'm glad I decided to swing by and eat here. No offense to my mom but this is way better than what she makes. Not that I'd ever tell her that."

"Well you mom didn't go to a gourmet school." Several pots banged together, making Alya's mother sigh. "It's probably Adelaide and Jacqueline. I swear those two can't go twenty minutes without fighting." She stood up. "I'll be back in a moment." She went into the kitchen, looking at two staff members who looked like they were fighting. She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Alright, what is going on here?"

"She stole my special knife," complained a blonde-haired, brown-eyed chef, pointing a pair of tongs accusingly. "My grandma got that when I graduated from École de Cuisine Alain Ducasse! It's one of a kind and my grandmother had it made especially for me!"

"I did not," the raven-haired, green-eyed chef replied. "She's talking about my knife!" Marlena looked back and forth at the two chefs before looking down at the offending knife, which was laying on a counter top.

"Is this the offending knife," asked Marlena as she picked it up, It was a knife with a very sharp edge and roses engraved on the blade, as well as a rose painted handle covered in lacquer to protect the designs. She tossed it a bit like she was testing the weight of it before looking at the first chef and handing it to her. "Pretty sure I've seen you using this knife a lot Adelaide." Adelaide smiled triumphantly, glaring at Jacqueline.

"That is not the knife we were arguing about," Jacqueline lied. "She was talking about another knife which is completely and totally mine." She pulled a knife out of her apron.

"I don't want your knife," hissed Adelaide. "Mrs. Césaire, I am so tired of this! You know that I graduated from the better school! She's always stealing my things and when she gets caught pretends I was trying to take her stuff!"

"What are you saying Adelaide," asked Marlena, a frown on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'm saying either Jacqueline goes or I do," Adelaide asserted. "I refuse to have someone who keeps hiding behind this ridiculous mask work with me, especially someone so dishonest!"

"You know better than anyone that I don't deal in absolutes," Marlena replied. "I know you're angry right now but Jacqueline's employment isn't my choice, it's Mr. Bourgeois's. What I do have power to do is send you home for the rest of the day. You had better come home with a better attitude tomorrow. Collect your things and go home."

"This is unfair," she grumbled as she grabbed a bag and started putting her things in it. "Jacqueline tries to steal my knife and I get sent home!" She turned and glared at Jacqueline, who smirked at her. Adelaide huffed before exiting.

"She's always so dramatic," said Jacqueline, which earned her a sharp glare from Marlena.

"You're not off the hook," she warned. "I'm reporting this to Mr. Bourgeois. This is the third time I've gotten a report of you trying to claim someone else's stuff as yours. Just because it's always Adelaide doesn't mean she's lying. Now get back to work." She went back out of the kitchen and sat down with Alya and Nino. "Sorry about that. I had to send one of my chefs home because of a dispute."

"Totally fine Mrs. C," said Nino with a casual wave of his hand. "It's no prob. Things happen."

* * *

Adelaide walked out of the hotel, her face red with anger as she stormed down the street.

"It's like Mrs. Césaire can't see Jacqueline for what she is," she vented. "She's so two faced!" She pulled her special chef's knife out of her back, slashing it in the air in very sharp motions. "I wish I could make her see just how two faced Jacqueline is!"

* * *

"Ah," sighed Hawk Moth as his window opened, "how lovely. As they say, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and this woman feels very scorned. After working so hard at the restaurant, she gets sent home while the one in the wrong gets to stay. The anger from that is perfect for my Akuma." He held out his hand, letting a butterfly land before filling it up with dark energy. "Fly away my little Akuma and give her the power she wants."

* * *

The dark butterfly landed on her knife as the butterfly emblem appeared over Adelaide's now angry face.

" _Revealer,"_ said Hawk Moth, _"I am Hawk Moth. You know people who hide behind masks and lies in order to get what they want, while you, an honest and good person, gets blamed. I will give you the power to reveal who a person truly is, but in return you must serve me by bringing me Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses!"_

"At your service Hawk Moth," said Adelaide as she was covered in darkness.

* * *

"Alya really did that," said Nino with a laugh while Alya had her head face down, buried in her arms.

"She did," Marlena said with a smile. "She was so cute when it happened but she hates it when I tell that story."

"Something please come along and put me out of my misery," Alya groaned right before the doors of the restaurant burst open. A woman with a black mask, silver hair, snow white skin, and wearing a silver bodysuit that was so shiny that it was almost reflective burst in. She brandished what looked like a long dagger, her eyes filled with fury.

"Jacqueline," she screamed in anger.

"Whoa," said Alya as she pulled out her phone, taking a video. "This is Alya updating the Ladyblog live! I think a new supervillain just showed up who has it for one of the chefs at Le Grand Paris!"

"Kids get out of here," ordered Marlena.

* * *

Marinette's phone went off as she was sitting in her room after lunch. She frowned as she pulled it out, recognizing the alert sound.

"What update could Alya possibly have for the Ladyblog at this time of day?" Tikki came out of Marinette's bag and watched with her.

"I am the Revealer," claimed the villain as she brandished her dagger. "With this I will reveal the truth behind the mask a person puts up!"

"Oh no," said Tikki, "Alya's in danger!"

"Looks like we might be late getting back to school," said Marinette. "Tikki, Spots On!"

* * *

Adrien was going through some pictures on his phone, a couple of them with him and a blushing Marinette. He'd known plenty of girl to crush on him before, sure, but this just felt different from all of those other girls.

"Staring at your girlfriend," Plagg teased as he floated over Adrien's should. Adrien just rolled his eyes.

"Are you ever going to stop with that," he asked, to which Plagg just shook his head.

"Not until you admit you like her," he said. "Come on, you've never gotten flustered around another girl like that before. You know tons of the models you work with crush on you, you know Chloe crushes on you, and yet it's Marinette that has you flustered." He snickered. "You act all suave and confident around Ladybug as Chat Noir but she doesn't like you back. Now that you're aware that she likes you, and you kinda like her, things are getting awkward because you don't know how to deal. Not like you've ever had a girlfriend before."

"Shut up." He huffed, leaning back in his chair. "Okay so maybe I've been getting closer to Marinette lately. She does seem pretty cool, but I feel like I know less about her than I know about Ladybug."

"If only you knew," Plagg whispered to himself with a snicker.

"Did you say something?" Plagg shook his head as Adrien pulled out his phone. "Huh, wonder what Alya posted to the blog this time." He tilted his phone and started the video.

"Get away from me," screamed Jacqueline as Revealer chased her around, throwing out her dagger and shooting beams.

"You won't get away from me," Revealer spat as she ran towards Jacqueline.

"It looks like the Revealer is after one of my mom's employees," said Alya as she filmed from behind a potted plant. "I hope Ladybug and Chat Noir see this!"

"Alya, we need to go," came Nino's voice off camera.

"Nino?" Adrien looked at Plagg with worry. "We have to save Nino! He might be in some serious trouble! Plagg, Claws Out!"

* * *

Ladybug swung through the streets of Paris, watching as Revealer kept chasing Jacqueline, with Alya and Nino running behind them filming. Marlena was chasing her daughter, a panicked expression on her face.

"Alya we need to get somewhere safe," Nino insisted. "Wait for Ladybug and Chat Noir to show up before chasing the villain!"

"I am not missing a single moment," said Alya with a bright smile on her face.

"GET BACK HERE ALYA," shouted her mother.

"Get back here you little worm," called out Revealer as she sent another beam at Jacqueline.

"What is your problem," Jacqueline shrieked. "I'm nobody!" Ladybug landed right in between Jacqueline and Revealer.

"Ever heard of please," Ladybug asked as she swung her yoyo. Marlena took the stop in the chase as a chance to yank Nino and Alya behind a car to hide.

"Ladybug," growled out Revealer. "Get out of my way! I'll deal with you later. First I wanna deal with the pretty little liar you're protecting." She shot another beam from her dagger.

"Sorry, but she's not on the menu," said Ladybug as she spun her yoyo to intercept the attack. "Run away." Jacqueline nodded and ran off.

"You have no idea what's going on Ladybug," Revealer snarled. "You have no idea how much that woman has stolen from me, and all the lies she says to get out of trouble! She's two faced, and it's time the world saw her real face!"

"Adelaide," asked Marlena softly. "Oh no…"

"Isn't that one of the chefs that works under you," asked Alya as she turned to her mother.

"Yes," she said. "She said either Jacqueline went or she went, and since I don't deal in ultimatums I sent her home for the rest of the day to cool off. I never imagined this happening!"

"It's not your fault," said someone behind them. They all turned around to see Chat Noir's grinning face. "Some people just don't know how to compromise."

"But this feels like my fault," Marlena said, looking down. "Adelaide just wanted to protect her things after Jacqueline tried to claim her knife as hers when Adelaide and I both know it wasn't. I shouldn't have been so harsh just because she presented a situation I didn't like, especially when she wasn't in the wrong. At the very least I should've sent Jacqueline home too but I was too mad at Adelaide."

"Well the past is the past," said Chat. "Now stay back while Ladybug and I handle everything." He extended his staff to launch him to be next to Ladybug. "Looks like we've got quite the situation on our hands."

"I noticed," Ladybug replied.

 _"Use your powers on them,"_ ordered Hawk Moth. _"Reveal to me the identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir! Then you may finish your business with Jacqueline!"_

"Don't you think it's time you let the cat out of the bag," asked Revealer as she sent two beams towards them. Ladybug used her yoyo as a shield while Chat Noir blocked it with his staff.

"What exactly does she do," asked Chat Noir.

"Your guess is as good as mine," answered Ladybug.

"Hm." Revealer tapped her chin. "I guess I SHOULD let you two see what my powers are just so you know the kind of strength you're up against." She looked around. "Let's see. Who's my perfect little victim?" She turned around and saw Alya, video taping them. "Aha!" She smirked and threw out the hand with the dagger, sending a beam at Alya.

"Alya _**no**_ ," shouted Ladybug, throwing her yoyo. It was too late, and the beam hit Alya, knocking her over.

" _ALYA!_ " Nino went straight over to her, cradling her in his arms while Marlena stood over them, horrified. "Alya, talk to me!"

"I like helping Marinette so much cause it makes me feel better," she groaned. "It makes me feel good to see her happy but it also makes my life feel more interesting and meaningful. It's also why I run the Ladyblog." She held her head, sitting up. "Why am I saying all that?"

"Come on," said Nino as he and Mrs. Césaire dragged Alya away.

"We need to get to safety," said Marlena. "We can go back to the restaurant and lock up!"

"That's my power," said Revealer as she turned back towards Ladybug and Chat Noir. "My power reveals who people truly are, at least as far as my beams are concerned. It may not be flashy or dangerous, but who cares? At least people will know who someone really is!" She sent another two beams at them.

"We can't let her power hit us," said Ladybug with wide eyes as she used her yoyo to block them. "What if all of Paris sees who we are? Then we'd have to give up being Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

"Not happening," said Chat as he ran towards her, twirling his staff, Ladybug following with her yoyo. "I think the Akuma is in her dagger! It's probably her chef's knife! I heard Mrs. Césaire talk about it!"

"Good eye," said Ladybug as she swung her yoyo, letting it wrap around the dagger and trying to yank it out of her grasp.

"No one is getting my dagger," Revealer hissed out as she yanked her hand back. "How about we just get a nice reveal of who you really are Ladybug?"

"No," yelled out Chat Noir as he threw his staff. It hit her hand made the shot go completely off course while his staff returned to Chat's hands. The beam bounced around, from a reflective window to a car mirror to a stop sign pole before hitting Chat Noir and knocking him high enough up in the air that he went over a car.

"Chat Noir," shouted Ladybug in concern as she turned towards him.

"Cursed cat," Revealer snarled as she tried to yank her dagger out of Ladybug's yoyo while Ladybug was distracted. "Oh well, at least now I can see your real face!" Ladybug didn't seem to care, running over to Chat Noir while Revealer just climbed on top of the car, looking down at him. When Ladybug got behind the car, she smiled in relief when she saw he hadn't been transformed back, although he was holding his head in pain.

"Ow," he groaned, "I think I just hit my head so hard some of my brains came out of my ears."

"You'd have to have a brain in the first place," she teased as she helped him up. "That was a good save though, thanks. It looks like you're fine though, so I guess that we don't have to worry about her changing us back."

"I guess not," said Chat with a shrug before smirking, putting his staff on his belt.

"Urgh!" Revealer threw her arms out in frustration. "I don't have time for this! I'll deal with you two once I have Jacqueline pay!" With that, she jumped off the top of the car and started to run at superhuman speed.

"I wonder why she didn't run like that when she was first Akumatized," Chat wondered aloud.

"No time for that," said Ladybug as she aimed her yoyo, getting ready to swing away. "We need to catch up with her!"

"You're right," said Chat noir as he placed his staff on the ground, ready to launch himself away with her. "Who knows what she'll do to Jacqueline after she admits she tried to steal the knife? I'm guessing that dagger can do way more than just reveal people's inner selves!"

"Then let's go!" With that, Ladybug and Chat Noir were swinging off.

* * *

Revealer growled as she ran through the streets of Paris, looking for Jacqueline. Out of frustration and anger she started blasting everyone around her.  
"Now you'll see people's true selves," she shouted as she ran past people. Most of her blasts hit nothing, but some of them did hit people.

"Ow," yelled one girl who was getting a box of chocolates from her girlfriend before slamming the box down. "I don't even like chocolate unless it has cream! I just don't say anything so I don't hurt your feelings but I'm getting seriously tired of these things!"

"I've always hated this jacket," said another guy as he threw a jacket down into a puddle and stepped on it. "I only wear it cause everyone will think I'm a jerk if I don't since my mom hand made it for me!"

"Hey guess what," said a girl to one of her friends, "I actually DO like Adrien Agreste too! I just didn't say anything because of our friendship but that's over! Every person for themself!"

"Look at all this chaos," said Ladybug as she looked down from the top of a building with Chat, watching friends, couples, and families tear each other apart. "This is just cruel!"

"I guess having a filter is a good thing," said Chat.

"Then why aren't you spewing whatever pops up in your head," asked Ladybug, to which he just shrugged.

"When I'm Chat I never have much of a filter anyway. 90% of everything I say is through a filter in my normal life and I just get so sick and tired of it." It was like a sound went off as Chat opened his eyes, a little surprised at what he just said. "Did I really just say that? I was just gonna make a joke about how I was too strong to be overcome by her powers. Why'd I say that instead?"

"I guess Revealer's powers still affected you," Ladybug reasoned. "But did you notice how her aim is really off when she's going fast. That's probably why she was running at normal speed with Jacqueline. She can't see very well when she'd going fast."

"Makes sense," said Chat. "Hopefully we can use that to our advantage. Let's hope these relationships are all still salvageable after all this. I don't think your Miraculous Ladybug is gonna be able to fix everything."

"I know," she said as she threw her yoyo. "I feel so bad for all these people affected by her. They're just saying everything they feel and really hurting other people's feelings."

"I don't think everyone telling the truth is a bad thing," said Chat. "I mean, I hate it when people lie to me and keep things from me. I mean, our partnership is different and sure I would love nothing more than to know who you are under the mask, but that's for our own good. But with stuff like this? All they're doing is trying to avoid hurting people's feelings and in the end it just makes them resentful. That's probably why they're acting so angry when they're telling the truth. Alya wasn't angry when she talked about why she helps her friend, but these people are mad because they've spent all this time being mad that these people didn't understand them. Not the real them. They've spent this time liking a fake version of these people."

"Chat," said Ladybug, a little worried, "are you alright?"

"Not at all," he said with a laugh. "But we don't have time to sort through my personal problems. We need to stop Revealer before she finds Jacqueline." He extended his staff, bounding off.

"I never knew you felt like that," she said softly before shaking her head. "Chat's right. We don't have time to think about that."

* * *

Jacqueline was up against a beam on the Eiffel Tower. She had ran there in hopes of hiding among all the tourists, but once Revealer was one the scene she found that everyone else had run off, leaving her with just the Revealer.

 _"Why are you going after her now,"_ asked Hawk Moth. _"You had Ladybug and Chat Noir!"_

"I'll get them after this," she promised. "Right now Jacqueline is right in my grasp!"

 _"Don't forget that I can take your power back,"_ Hawk Moth reminded her. _"Make sure to get this taken care of quickly and then get Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculouses, or I'll take it all away."_ The emblem disappeared off of her face and she went back to glaring at Jacqueline.

"Time to fess up," said Revealer as she touched the dagger against Jacqueline's chest. "Show the world how two faced you are!" Light came from the tip of the dagger, spreading across Jacqueline, who looked at the spreading in horror.

"What are you doing to me," she quivered.

"Showing the world who you really are." Revealer pulled the knife away as Jacqueline was engulfed in light to show a woman who looked like she was mad from slime. "A slimy pathetic woman who wants what others have."

"It's true," sobbed the now slime Jacqueline. "Your family cared so much and got you all this personalized kitchenware while my family didn't care that I graduated from a gourmet school! No, all they cared about was that I didn't go into nursing school! Why do you get all the support and love and I don't?!"

"That doesn't give you a right to steal," Revealer screamed.

"Change her back," ordered Chat Noir as he landed, looking at the sobbing slime creature that kept lamenting about her appearance. "How did you even do that?"

"Oh this?" She smirked a she tossed her dagger up, balancing it on the tip of her finger. "I said when I use my beams I make people reveal who they really are. This just makes their true selves look a little more physical. Hm," She smirked and thrust the dagger forward, poking him in the chest with it. "Let's see if this reveals who you really are!" Chat made a noise and leaped back as the light washed over him, but as it disappeared, Chat Noir was still there. He grinned at her, spinning his staff around.

"Guess that's useless on me," he said as he walked towards her. "When I'm Chat Noir, I'm my truest self." Revealer growled, but noticed Ladybug swinging towards them.

"Well then," she started, "let's just see if that's the case for both you and your partner." She threw the knife right at the incoming Ladybug, who wasn't able to block it from such a close distance while swinging in. Chat Noir shouted as he reached to catch the dagger, but it just barely slipped past his fingers before hitting Ladybug in the chest and returning to Revealer's grasp like a boomerang. As Ladybug was covered in light, the surprise of the event caught her so off guard that her yoyo slipped and she started falling.

"LADYBUG NO," screamed out Chat as he ran to the side of the tower, reaching to grab her hand. Thankfully, while she was still covered in light she managed to snatch onto the ledge and swing to the lower level. Chat sighed in relief before turning to Revealer. "You could've seriously hurt her!" Revealer just shrugged, smirking at him.

"All the easier to take her Miraculous," she replied. That made Chat growl in anger, holding up his hand.

"Cataclysm!" Grabbing the dark energy, he jumped up and started to touch various beams of the tower, letting them fall around Revealer and leaving her trapped. "I'll be back to deal with you and your Akuma after I make sure Ladybug is safe."

* * *

Ladybug walked on the observation deck, looking down at herself.

"Well, Chat didn't change," she assured herself, "so I probably won't." As the light peel off of her hands and feet, she saw that underneath wasn't her Ladybug suit, but her normal hands and shoes. "No oh!" She looked around, deciding to hide between a trashcan and one of the wider support beams as the light kept peeling away. Once it was gone, she looked completely like Marinette, even though she still had her side pouch, earrings, and yoyo. "No no no no this can't be happening!" In moments Chat Noir was there, looking around for her.

"Ladybug," he called out, looking around. "Where are you Ladybug?!"

"Don't look for me," Marinette ordered, curling up on herself and hugging her knees. "Don't look for me please."

"Why wouldn't I," he asked, trying to follow the voice to the support beam she was hiding behind.

"Because I'm not Ladybug right now," she said, tears threatening to spill over. "I'm who I am out of my costume, and my Kwami isn't with me so I think I'm still transformed somehow? But I'm not in costume I'm in my regular clothes and I don't have my mask and I just don't know how to deal with this!"

"Ladybug," he said softly, staying behind the support beam so he wasn't looking at her, "you're still just as much Ladybug now as you are with the mask."

"You don't know me," she shouted back, gripping her hair. "You don't _know_ me when I'm out of the mask! I know Tikki says I'm just as good as Ladybug and as I am when I'm myself, but I never feel like that! Ladybug is just a persona I put up to make myself feel brave. When I'm not Ladybug, I'm just… I'm just this clumsy, regular girl with a normal life who doesn't do remarkable things. I can't even remember to turn in my math homework, or get to school on time! I'm constantly breaking things or ruining them and who knows what other things I've messed up? Up until recently I couldn't even talk to this guy I really liked without stammering and running off! Without the mask, I'm nowhere near as good as I am as Ladybug…" She sobbed into her knees. "I don't want anyone to see me because then I'll ruin the image of Ladybug. I'll ruin everything if people know it's me under the mask. That's who people like and admire. I have friends as me but people won't look at Ladybug the same ever again if they know it's me, and not someone else more confident and strong. That's… that's the real reason I don't want you to see who I am. It's not because I want to keep things professional, it's because I don't want your trust in me to be lost when you see who I really am…"

"Can I say I kind of understand," he asked, sitting down on the other side of the beam. "Recently I found out this girl I was friends with had this huge crush on me. She's sweet and funny and kind, and I thought that we were just good friends. In fact, we were getting closer and closer and it felt really nice to get to know her. When I found out she liked me like that it really threw me for a loop, although in hindsight it was obvious. At first I didn't think I liked her back, but I kinda got nervous around her. I've had plenty of girls crush on me, and yet it was this girl that had me flustered. It took me a while, but when I said what I did earlier, about people liking the mask and not the person underneath, and I realized that even though I love someone else, maybe I do kind of like her like that, but I don't know if she likes me. Not really anyway. She doesn't know that when I'm really free to be myself as Chat Noir, and it makes me wonder, does she like me, or just the nice quiet guy I pretend to be for the sake of my father? And even further, it makes me think about the friends I've made. Who do they like? The real me or the guy I pretend to be so I can keep the little amount of freedom I do have? The situations are identical, but I feel like they're similar. You don't want people to know you're Ladybug because it'll ruin her image, and I don't know if I want people to know who I am because maybe then, they won't like me." He sighed, looking down. "They'll like who I pretend to be and then stop being my friend."

"I never thought we related so much." She sniffled, wiping her eyes. "But you know, I bet you just need to let her see the real Chat Noir. Acting different as Chat Noir and as your regular self doesn't mean she doesn't know the real you. It just means she only knows a small part of you. I bet learning more about you would really knock her off her feet."

"Then why can't you do that Ladybug," he asked, turning his head towards her even though he couldn't see her.

"It's complicated," she sighed out. "Who I am without the mask is nowhere near as good as Ladybug is, no matter what Tikki, or anyone else tells me. Sure, they're both me but at the same time, I can never be as confident or as strong as Ladybug. Not unless I'm actually being her."

"I think you can," said Chat. "You just need to remember, your superpowers aren't what makes Ladybug. You're what makes you Ladybug. Kwami or no kwami, no one else can be like Ladybug the way you can be. You're incredible that way."

"You really think so?"

"I know so," he grinned. "But if you don't want people to see you as your regular self then I respect that." He looked up as he heard metal bending. "I think our villain is about to escape. Do you think you can use your powers?"

"I think so," said Marinette as she looked at her yoyo. "But you're going to have to try and use my Lucky Charm, not me. Bring it back when you break the dagger. Think you can do that Chat?"

"I think I can manage," he said. "You go Ladybug." She smiled and stood up, tossing her yoyo up into the air.

"Lucky Charm!" She frowned when a slinky landed in her hands. "Why would I need a slinky?" She reached an arm around, holding it out for him.

"Who knows," said Chat with a shrug as he grabbed it. Even though she wasn't actively trying, she found her eyes landing on the stairs down from the upper deck.

"I think you need to stretch it across the stairs," she replied. "Don't ask me why, I don't know either, but do it!"

"At your service Milady," he said with a wink before going over to the stairs and hooking one end of the slinky to the railing, stretching the other side across and hooking it. Once that was done he moved away from the front of the steps, moving just far back enough that he could watch Revealer come down without her seeing him. She sped right down the stairs in a blur, but since she couldn't see the slinky she tripped right over it, landing on her face and letting go of her dagger as it skid a few feet away. Before she could summon it back to her hand, Chat Noir slammed his foot down on the blade, watching the butterfly fly out of it. Thankfully, when Revealer had tripped she took the slinky with her, so all Chat had to do was pick up the slinky and toss it over to where he thought Ladybug was. Marinette smiled and grabbed it, tossing it up into the air.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" As the ladybug swarmed, they surrounded her, turning her back into Ladybug, making Jacqueline look normal again, and making everyone else feel horrified at everything they'd said.

"You ready Bugaboo," asked Chat as he turned towards the beam. Ladybug smiled and came out of it.

"You bet," she said as she split her yoyo open. "No more evildoing for you little Akuma!" She threw the yoyo to catch the Akuma. "Time to de-evilize!" Once the yoyo closed over the butterfly she brought it back to her and let it go, watching the now white butterfly leave. "Bye-bye little butterfly." She smiled and turned to her partner, holding up a fist.

"Pound it," they said together as they bumped their fists.

* * *

"I wasn't even close this time," growled out Hawk Moth. "Revealer, you failed me miserably, but I will take your Miraculouses, and one way or another I will find out who you are so I can take them!" The window started to close, leaving Hawk Moth to be in total darkness.

* * *

Revealer started to get up, but as she did her darkness melted away, turning her back into a very confused Adelaide.

"What happened," she wondered, looking around before grabbing her knife. "My knife! What's it doing out of my bag? Why am I on the Eiffel Tower?!"

"It's a long story," said Chat as his ring beeped to have one pad left.

"Which neither of us have time to explain," said Ladybug with a smile. "You're about to transform back."

"Would that be so bad," he asked with honest curiosity. "After all we said are we really going to keep hiding who we are?"

"I still feel like I have to work on myself," she said. "Tell you what. If you can get that girl to see the real you and she still likes you, then maybe. But for now, I think we're not ready to see who the other is under the mask." With that, she threw her yoyo and swung away, leaving him to sigh.

"Now I've got a whole new problem," he said. "Who do I like more? Marinette or Ladybug?"

* * *

Marinette managed to get in class well before the bell went off, sitting in the science lab next to Alya.

"Girl, the craziest thing happened during our lunch break today," said Alya as Marinette sat next to her. "I'm glad I chose to go eat with my mom."

"Why," asked Marinette, feigning confusion. "Something cool happen?"

"One of Alya's mom's chefs got Akumatized," said Nino as he turned around. "It was so weird! She started chasing around one of the other chefs, but when the two got back it seemed like they'd made up."

"That's really interesting," said Marinette. "And I'm guessing Ladybug came around and saved you."

"That she did," said Alya, "but not before I was forced to say literally everything that popped into my head. It was so weird."

"She started talking about how she used to collect hair she found on the ground she was convinced was from a unicorn as a kid," said Nino with a chuckle, making Alya blush and shove him.

"Don't say that out loud," she hissed. "I was 5! I didn't know hair dye existed yet!"

"Seriously Alya," Marinette laughed out. "That's kind of cute." She looked at the other side of the table, which was where Adrien normally sat. "Hey, where's Adrien?"

"Don't know," Nino replied. "Guess he went somewhere fancy for lunch break."

* * *

Adrien was sitting in the limo, tapping his leg impatiently.

"Can't believe I'm gonna be late to class again," he groaned. "I tried to go as fast as I could but I had to stop for that cheese. Stupid camambert." The Gorilla pulled up to the school and Adrien got out, watching as he drove away before walking up to the building.

"Are you really gonna try and go after Marinette," asked Plagg as he poked out from Adrien's jacket.

"I don't know yet," he said honestly. "I still really like Ladybug, but Marinette's also cool too. I want to see if she still likes me when I act more like, well, me. Maybe then, when she sees who I really am, and if she still likes me, then I might ask her out."

"I think you should just do it anyway," said Plagg.

"No," Adrien declared. "I'm not asking her out until I know that she really likes me for me, not just for Adrien Agreste." With that, he walked into his class and settled next to Nino.

"Glad you could make it," said Nino. "We wanted to talk about the villain attack Alya and I went through at Le Grand Paris."

"It was pretty cool seeing Ladybug in action," said Alya.

"It's always cool to see Ladybug in action," said Adrien with a smile as he sat down. "She's pretty awesome."

"Well she is a superhero," said Marinette. "She's confident and amazing."

"I bet she isn't always," Adrien replied with a grin. "She's a person under that mask, not just a super hero. She probably has doubts and confidence issues like everyone. No one is free from them completely."

"Not even the great Adrien Agreste," teased Nino.

"Not even me," he admitted. "Just because I model for my dad and get good grades doesn't mean I should have doubts."

"But you're so good at everything you try," said Marinette. "I honestly haven't seen you fail at anything."

"Then you should see me in the kitchen," he snickered. "One time I tried to make some cookies for my mom's birthday and I set the oven on fire."

"Seriously?!" Marinette had to keep herself from laughing. "What did you do to make it set on fire?"

"Apparently making it twice as hot doesn't actually bake them twice as fast," he explained, laughing. "It just makes fires."

"Hey," said Alya, "you should ask Marinette to teach you. She's great at baking!"

" _Alya_ ," Marinette whispered, her face both embarrassed and shocked. "You can't just invite me over to someone else's house for me!"

"Eh, I don't mind, but first I'd have to get permission to be allowed in the kitchen again," said Adrien. "If I can though I'd love some cooking lessons, but be warned. My personal chef tried and almost quit his job because I was so bad."

"Well that just means he's not suited for teaching," said Alya. "Marinette's the best."

"Then I look forward to it," said Adrien as the bell rang and the teacher came in. Marinette's face was pure bliss and excitement when she realized what had just happened.

"He just invited me over to his house!" If it wouldn't have gotten her yelled at, she would've leaped up into the air. Alya just smiled and shook her head.

"You never change when it comes to his."

 **Song Of Hope: Well this is a little more than half as long as the previous chapter, over half by about a thousand words but eh. So I'm realizing that the title doesn't really fit how this is going but I'll probably end here unless I'm asked to update again.**


	3. Sick

**Song Of Hope: I decided to give in and make a full on story out of this XD. There'll be some development into some of the OCs I've made for this story but it could also include serious themes, and if so I will change the rating to T. I'll keep running these chapters in place of canon episodes until January when you can get actual episodes of Miraculous Ladybug since they won't be premiering. R &R**

Marinette sat in the library, there before class had started for once. She already had her book open and was taking notes on what she was reading very diligently.

"You seem to be really into your book," said Angelique with a smile as she pulled her book cart to a stop.

"Oh hey Angelique," said Marinette with a smile. "I haven't seen you the past couple of days. Have you been at home?"

"Yeah," she admitted, looking away sheepishly and rubbing her arm. "My parents weren't exactly happy that I got Akumatized and wanted me to stay home for the next couple of days just to make sure I was… alright." She laughed nervously. "It was good to step away from school. Usually kids are pretty nasty right after Akuma attacks. Only Aurore has been Akumatized in my class. It's not like your class where everyone's accepted that it's something that just happens to people sometimes when they're feeling bad."

"I'm sorry," said Marinette, as she pat the seat next to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I actually have to help out around the library," said Angelique, "but I would like to later. I mean not necessarily talk, I mean hang out. Kinda like friends? I mean that is if you wanna hang out. I know you have your own friends and they probably wouldn't wanna talk to me but they all seem cool! Oh my gosh, like Alya!" Her face lit up and she started talking animatedly, moving her hands around and expressing herself in her movements and not just her words. "I love her Ladyblog! It's so cool and I can't believe she made the entire thing herself! It always looks so sleek and amazing!" As Angelique kept talking, Marinette just smiled to herself, thinking, "wow does this girl talk a lot" and yet Marinette still enjoyed listening. After a few minutes of this, Angelique blushed and stopped talking, holding her hand with her arms straight down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go on a rant like that."

"It's okay," Marinette chuckled. "I do the same thing a lot, although usually it's because of some doomsday scenario running through my head. If you're busy then we can just text later. Do you have your phone?"

"Oh, yeah!" She smiled and pulled out her phone. It was a small and thick phone, and Marinette soon realized it wasn't a smart phone. It was just one of those sliding phones with a screen that was basically just a flip phone with a touch screen and a keyboard.

"You have one of these things?" Marinette took the phone, trying to find Angelique's sadly bare contacts and add hers in. "I haven't seen anyone use one of these!"

"Well uh, my parents said if I want a real smart phone I have to get a job and pay for it myself," she replied. "It really stinks because they don't believe me when I say that we actually do a lot of school activities on phones now. I even get notes from teachers and nothing! Not to mention I can't exactly get any jobs until I'm 16 other than babysitting. Even then I don't make very much money. I haven't saved up nearly enough to afford even the cheapest one of these."

"Well maybe you can eventually save up," Marinette said as she handed Angelique her phone. "There. If you ever need a friend to talk to you can talk to me."

"A friend," asked Angelique after a moment, holding her phone.

"Of course," Marinette said with a smile. "I wouldn't give you my number otherwise."

"Ahem," came a voice at the entrance. The two of them turned and looked towards Chloe and Sabrina, both of whom did not look happy. Angelique took a small step back. She was not really prepared to see Chloe again.

"Relax." Chloe rolled her eyes, walking towards Angelique. "You look like you think I'm gonna bite your head off or something." She held her hand out, to which Sabrina placed a thin, long box with a yellow bow in it. Chloe held it out to Angelique. "Just take it and don't say anything! And don't think this means we're friends! I have no interest in befriending someone as horribly dressed as you!" Dumbfounded, Angelique took the box from Chloe. "Come on Sabrina, I gotta go pick out a new book for my project." Chloe turned away from her and walked off with Sabrina following behind her. Angelique looked at the box for a few moments before opening it up to see a gorgeous silver and gold pen with a golden angel on the pen clip.

"It's beautiful," Angelique whispered in awe. "I've never seen such a nice pen."

"I think that's Chloe's way of saying she's sorry," said Marinette. "She's still plenty nasty but I think maybe things are starting to change for the better." Only because Ladybug told her she would make sure Chloe kept her promise, but Marinette wouldn't ruin the moment.

"It was still nice of her," said Angelique as she moved to place it in her breast pocket so the angel could be visible. "I'm gonna write with it all the time! It looks like one of those expnsive pens with the really nice ink, so I'll use it sparingly."

"Nice pen," said Alya as she walked into the library, placing her stuff next to Marinette. "You're Angelique right?" She just stared at Alya and nodded slowly. "Nice to meet you. Sorry that we didn't talk before, I was recording Chloe when she was being so nasty. I'd say sorry you had to suffer through that but it seems everyone is dealing with it."

"Wait," she frowned, "you recorded Chloe? Is that how she got suspended?"

"No one deserves to get a smack down from Chloe like that," said Alya, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "You literally didn't do anything to her and she went off like a jerk. Someone had to make sure there was proof. Any other time she's done something there was no proof and she got away with it." Alya grinned. "Chloe totally got what she deserved, and now she's 4 days behind on the project since she didn't bother actually working the day she got in trouble. Plus that gave you 3 sweet sweet Chloe free days."

"That was… really nice of you," stammered out Angelique.

"It was nothing," said Alya. "Someone had to get some concrete evidence. Plus my mom got me this awesome new phone that has the best camera zoom I've ever seen. Like seriously, wanna check it out?"

"I would advise against that Miss Césaire," said an old woman who came up behind them. Angelique looked a little embarrassed when she realized who was there, looking down. "Angelique may not have classes this period but she still has responsibilities to attend to."

"Sorry Mrs. Lecteur," she replied. "I'll go back to restocking the shelves."

"Mhm." Angelique gave Marinette and Alya a wave before walking off with the book cart. Mrs. Lecteur went back to the librarians desk, ready for students to check out books. Alya sat down next to Marinette.

"That girl seems to get nervous easily," Alya noted. "Wonder what's up."

"Who knows," Marinette replied with a shrug, "but she seems nice enough, even if she's chatty."

"Who seems nice," asked Nino as he sat down in front of Alya, placing his bag on the table.

"Angelique," Marinette answered, "the library aide. We were just talking a bit before Mrs. Lecteur reminded her she still had work to do." Marinette looked at the entrance where Nino had come in. "Where's Adrien? I thought you waited for him normally."

"I do," Nino replied as he got out his phone, "but he sent me a text a little bit ago." He showed Alya and Marinette his phone.

Ads: Sorry Nino, I can't come in today. I caught a nasty cold.  
Me: srsly bro? what happened?  
Ads: A little kid sneezed directly in my face and then I woke up this morning with the worst stuffed nose I've ever had in my life.  
Me: bummer dude. dont worry bro ill let everyone know if the teach doesnt  
Ads: Thanks Nino.

"Adrien texts like my dad," Nino chuckled out.

"He's sick?!" Marinette brain started to go to the worst case scenario but Alya grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't freak girl." She pointed at Nino and the other people coming in the library. "Don't forget we have company. Deep breaths." Marinette looked at her for a moment but took in a deep breath as requested. "There you go girl. Now, it's probably just something small like the cold. People get colds all the time and there's been one going around. Tons of people have got it so far. I know Rose was out yesterday because of it, plus Mylene and Ivan."

"Yeah," said Nino, "it's probably nothing. If anything he's gonna be just fine. He's got his whole staff working to help him get better."

"But that doesn't mean a certain someone can't bring him his homework after school," Alya implied, nudging Marinette. "Who knows, maybe it'll be a relief to see a friendly face, and a cute one at that."

"No way," said Marinette, blushing and waving a dismissive hand. "Why would they let me in anyway?"

"Well you won that design competition," Alya pointed out. "Plus you're a good student with a good reputation. Not to mention you always do your best to help everyone."

"I agree with Alya," said Nino. "If Mr. Agreste is gonna allow anyone in his house that doesn't work for him, it's going to be you. You're probably one of the only people in our class who could."

"Well if you guys insist," said Marinette with a blush, pushing her index fingers together.

* * *

Adrien sat in his bed, a cold pack on his head as he blew his nose, tossing the tissue into the slowly filling bin. His skin was pale and clammy while his nose was red from both the illness and the constant blowing in failed hopes to clear it out.

"I feel horrible," he groaned. Plagg shrugged at Adrien.

"You're the one who decided to pose for a picture with that sick kid." He snickered. "But hey, at least no one took a picture of what happened after when you tried to shake her hand. I mean, she sneezed right in your face!" He doubled over remembering the event.

"Well I didn't know she was sick!" Adrien fell back against his bed as his phone went off a few times. "I missed a whole day of school on top of all of this. Let's just hope Hawk Moth doesn't decide to Akumatize anyone. I'm kinda useless at the moment."

"Again, your own fault." Adrien grabbed his phone and looked at the incoming texts.

Nino: dude marinettes coming ur way  
Nino: she left school like 20 min ago so shell b there soon  
Nino: shes bringing ur homkework n some notes for u to use  
Nino: *homework  
Nino: maybe she can play nurse 4 u ;)  
Nino: if ur dads assistant lets her in that is

Adrien sat up fully, the cold pack falling off his head.

"Marinette's coming here?!" He ran to his bathroom, looking in the mirror. "I look like death incarnate!"

"Death looks way better than you do right now," Plagg teased. "She's actually a pretty chill person."

"Not the time for jokes," Adrien glared as he started running water, cupping his hands and splashing his face. "I can't believe she's coming over."

"Nino probably told her you were sick." Plagg looked at the water stream. "I think this is probably his way of getting you to stop dragging your feet. Come on, you admitted you like her, just ask her out!"

"I want to make sure she likes the real me," Adrien reminded him, turning off the water. "She knows who I am as Adrien, but she's never even met me as Chat Noir. Well not for any substantial amount of time anyway."

"You could always tell her you're Chat Noir," Plagg suggested, which only got him a raised eyebrow in return.

"You emphasized repeatedly why I can't share who I am with people." He grabbed a towel and wiped his face, then started on his hands. "Why should I break that rule for Marinette?"

"Reasons." Adrien sighed. He knew he wasn't going to get an answer out of the cat.

"Whatever." He grabbed a bottle of cough medicine and measured out some. "I need to hurry and get outside. If this is like any other time, then Natalie's probably going to send her away. She sends everyone away unless it's work related." He took it in one gulp before shivering from the nasty taste. "Ugh."

* * *

Marinette rang the doorbell, holding a folder and a notebook.

"Who's there," asked Natalie through the intercom, the security camera observing Marinette.

"Hi uh," Marinette rubbed the back of her head, "I uh, I was here to uh, I have things from Adrien for school, I mean things from school for Adrien! I'm in his class so I thought I'd bring them here!"

"Put them in the drop box and then vacate the premises," ordered Natalie as the drop box popped out. "Adrien needs contact with as few people as possible."

"Oh…" Marinette looked at the drop box in disappointment, but understood. He was sick after all, and they wouldn't want someone else to make it worse. She started to put the items in but heard someone call out.

"Wait Marinette!" She looked up, confused before she blushed as Adrien ran up to the gate. He started huffing and puffing really hard, putting his hands on his knees. "Running is really hard when you're sick!" After he caught his breath he looked up at her. "Sorry, Natalie always tells people to leave when they drop stuff off for me."

"Adrien," came Natalie's surprised voice from the intercom. "Get back inside right now or your father will be very angry."

"Only if you let her in," said Adrien. "She's my friend and she came all this way." He started coughing violently.

"Adrien I think you should listen to her." Marinette reached a concerned hand towards him. "Besides, I don't think I could do much to help you out anyway. You have your staff. I just came here to drop off your notes."

"I'm not letting my father keep me from having friends over," Adrien managed to wheeze out. "Besides, I wasn't at class. It'd be better to have someone explain everything to me that was actually there."

"If you insist Adrien but your father won't be happy." Natalie sounded very unsure and extremely reluctant, but she didn't want Adrien to stand outside getting worse, so she begrudgingly opened the gate and let Marinette walk in. Marinette looked at the opening gate in surprise. She had been there for Christmas but other than that she had never properly been over to his house, at least not as Marinette.

He smiled sheepishly at her, extending a hand before pulling it back.

"Uh, sorry about Natalie," he said. "She means well. She's a little overprotective ever since my mom disappeared, although that's mostly at my dad's request." He extended a hand towards the house. "Anyway, wanna come in? You came all this way."

"I uh… okay?" Her cheeks were red as she walked towards him. He led her towards the house, opening the door for her. She ducked in, holding his stuff out once they were inside. "I brought these for you! If you want me to explain these to you then I can! I paid extra attention in class to make sure that I could help out!"

"Thanks for that," said Adrien as he reached to grab them. "I was worried about missing out on stuff." He took the notes, holding them close to his chest. "We can head up to my room if you-" He started coughing again, rather hard and almost making him double over. "Seriously? I already took some medicine!"

"Is that all you did," asked Marinette.

"Well yeah," he replied, frowning in thought. "What else would I do?"

"You've never had your mo- I mean," she laughed nervously, trying to brush off what she almost said, "your dad or anyone cook for you and take care of you when you're sick?"

"My mom was a huge germaphobe," Adrien chuckled. "She wouldn't get near me, but she'd use the intercoms to sing to me and that made me feel better. My dad's never been like that, and at this point I'd rather just take care of myself."

"That's so wrong!" She looked around. "Which way to the kitchen?"

"Uh," he looked and pointed, trying to figure out what Marinette was trying to do, "the hall to the right of the stairs leads there. Just take a left once you pass the in home theater. Why do you want to go to the kitchen?"

"I'll explain when I'm done," she said. "Just go upstairs, lay down and focus on getting better!" Before Adrien could ask anything else she ran off.

"Man," sniggered Plagg from Adrien's jacket, "when that girl gets an idea she gets laser focused on it."

* * *

Marinette started riffling around the gigantic kitchen, grabbed different ingredients and lining them up. Tikki came out of her bag, frowning at all of the items Marinette had grabbed.

"I don't get it," said Tikki. "Why don't you just take Adrien to a healer?"

"Humans aren't like kwamis Tikki." Marinette poured some chicken broth into a pot and turned on the burner, keeping it at a low setting. "When people get sick we need things to help us get better. It takes time. We make things to help us get healthy faster, but usually it takes some time."

"Is this going to help Adrien?" Tikki looked curiously over the broth in one of the pots. "I can't imagine how food is going to help."

"It's a secret family recipe my dad makes for me." Marinette started to cut up some carrots and onions, tossing them into the warming broth. "His mom made it for him and her mom and on and on. It's a tradition when someone's sick. Of course I have to keep most of the ingredients secret, but you can watch me make it Tikki." She gave Tikki a kind smile before going back to cutting up different vegetables. "After all, you're like my family!"

"Well if kwamis had families you'd be part of mine too!" Tikki rubbed up against Marinette's cheek, making the girl giggle.

"Stop it Tikki," she said. "I have to make this as quickly as I can." She tossed more veggies in and put the lid over the pot. "This isn't easy to make from scratch, and I'm already doing some stuff off the recipe, like not making the chicken broth myself. I'll have to use a different cut of meat too, but hopefully it'll still taste as good as when my dad makes it for me. I know the recipe by heart, and I know all the substitutions."

"I think Adrien will really appreciate this," said Tikki as she watched Marinette work. "I don't think I've ever seen you work so hard so quickly. Adrien must be a really good motivator." Tikki giggled.

"Well Adrien needs to get better soon." Marinette put a pat of butter in a pan and let it melt while she cut up some chicken. "He has school and his modeling and a lot of other stuff he needs to be healthy to do. I'd do this for anyone in our class. I actually made this soup for just about everyone in our class. Haven't made any for Alya yet but she hasn't been sick since I've known her."

* * *

Hawk Moth stood in his room of butterflies, staring out at the city of Paris. He held a butterfly in his hand, just watching as it slowly moved around.

"Dark Wings Fall," he said after a moment, turning back into Gabriel Agreste. Nooroo seemed incredibly relieved, but confused as well.

"Why have you not used your powers yet Master?"

"My son is sick," he replied, clenching his fist. "Not only that, but his bodyguard is very ill as well from the same cold. I don't know if it is safe for me to Akumatize him. Natalie is not capable of protecting him." He took off his broach, opening it up and looking at the picture of his wife. "What would she think of me if I did something so reckless?"

* * *

Adrien looked through the notes Marinette made him as he sat on his bed, wiping his nose with a tissue.

"She wrote so carefully," he noticed with a smile. "It almost looks like she wrote down the lectures word for word. I never knew she had this kind of a skill."

"Maybe she just recorded it and copied it down," said Plagg with a shrug as he ate a slice of camembert. "I've seen plenty of your classmates do it when they don't wanna pay attention. They just record it and take notes later."

"It was still sweet of her." Adrien kept flipping through the notes. "Huh, didn't know we were talking about fractals in geometry. I thought we were on reflection points still." A soft knock came from the door.

"Adrien?" he looked towards the door where Marinette's voice was coming from. "It's me, Marinette."

"Hide Plagg!" Plagg hide behind a chair. "Come in." Marinette opened the door, picking up a breakfast tray off the ground and bring it over to him.

"I thought maybe you'd wanna eat in bed," she said as she sat at the foot of the bed, placing the tray down so he could see what was on it. From the contents, it looked like Marinette had made him homemade chicken noodle soup. He gave it an odd look. Growing up as he did he had never had such common food like this before. He rarely had soup in general.

"What is this?" He pointed down at the bowl. "Why is the broth yellow? Is, is food even supposed to be that shade of yellow? Is that even a yellow?"

"You've never had chicken noodle soup before?" She frowned when she thought about that. Her world and Adrien's felt so different and far apart sometimes, especially when it came to things that not only were normal to her, but she had just assumed he'd be familiar with. She shook her head and shoved that feeling deep down, then beat it with a mallet. "It's a traditional thing to make when someone's sick. Try some." Adrien looked at the bowl rather suspiciously, but he picked up the spoon and dipped it in the broth. He slowly brought it up to his lips, blowing on it to cool it before finally putting it in his mouth. He cringed like it would taste disgusting, but after a few seconds his face changed to pleasantly surprised.

"This actually tastes amazing!" He looked at Marinette in wonder, but she had her hand over her mouth and was trying her hardest not to burst at the seams with laughter, although she was containing it very poorly. "What? What's so funny Marinette?" At that she couldn't contain it anymore. She just burst out laughing as hard as she possibly could. It was a full blown, doubled over, tearing up kind of a laugh.

"I - have never - seen someone - eat chicken soup - like it was going - to - kill them!" Marinette had a hard time getting the words out but eventually she did. Adrien was annoyed for the first few moments, but seeing Marinette laugh so genuinely was cute. In fact, she looked so cute to him that he started to smile, waiting for her to finish her laughing before saying anything else.

"How can you look at a substance of that color and call it food?"

"It's just the color of chicken broth," she explained. "Unless you thicken it up and boil it down a lot and add other spices with different colors into it, it's going to look like that. It's just the color chicken broth is."

"Well it's tasty." Adrien took another bite while their kwamis snuck underneath Adrien's bed to talk.

"I still can't believe this," said Plagg. "Our holders Tikki, right here! Together! And they have no idea and they're all pining for each other and neither of them is smart enough to realize who the other is!"

"It'll be okay," said Tikki as she gave him an assuring pat. "We'll be able to get them to figure it out soon, once they can really see each other."

"Why do we gotta wait so long," he whined.

"We're their Kwamis," Tikki said. "We have to respect their wishes. Not to mention Marinette and Adrien need to see who the other really is on the inside and fall in love with them too. Marinette needs to fall for Chat Noir and he needs to fall for Marinette! You can't build a romance on loving someone's persona without knowing the real person inside!"

"But Adrien already likes Marinette that way," Plagg said in exasperation. "Why can't we just tell Marinette that Chat Noir and Adrien are the same person?!"

"Marinette doesn't love Chat." Tikki looked up towards her holder, even though the mattress was in the way. "She loves Adrien. It's only when she sees Adrien and Chat Noir in the same light that it'll be time for them to know. Otherwise, if they find out they might not love each other. Adrien may love all of Marinette, but Marinette right now only loves a small part of Adrien. If she finds out he's Chat then if she does come to love him it'll only be because of Adrien, not because of Chat, who Adrien feels is his truest self. I can't let Marinette do that to Adrien, and you shouldn't want to do that to your miraculous holder."

"I know," Plagg sighed out. "That doesn't make this any less annoying. I just want them to get this all over with and kiss already!"

"In due time," Tikki giggled. "But for now we just need to be there for each other. It's nice to be able to spend time with you again though Plagg. It's been decades!"

"So people make this stuff all the time when their kids are sick," Adrien asked, still confused as he took another spoonful of soup.

"All the time," she answered with a smile. "This is my family's special secret recipe. I give it to everyone when they're sick, but I've never made it at someone else's house before, so that was interesting." She smiled and got up. "I should really get going. I have some homework that I need to do."

"Wait!" Adrien grabbed her wrist as she started to walk away. "I uh…" Marinette blushed and turned to him, waiting for what he wanted to say. He pulled his hand away. "It's nothing. I'm sorry. Go ahead and go home."

"I don't have to leave." She turned back around. "If you want I can stay."

"I was just gonna say I could help you with your homework." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "But then again you might get sick if you stay here with me any longer."

"I almost never get sick," said Marinette with her hand quickly waving back and forth. "It's fine! Never even had so much as a sniffle! But uh, you sure you'll be able to help me? You weren't in class today. If anything I should try and help you!"

"I learn fast," he said with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I already read through everything while you made the soup. I can help you with the fractals in geometry. They can be confusing to some people."

"Well…" She looked towards the door, "I left my sack in the kitchen actually. I took it off to cook and just never put it back on. If you really want to then I'll go get my backpack." With that, she gave him a wave and dashed out of the room. Tikki snuck out with her, managing to avoid Adrien's line of sight.

"She's so cute," he said to himself with a sigh. Plagg shook his head.

"You're so oblivious."

* * *

Marinette ran through the halls with her bag in her hands, coming around a corner and running smack into Gabriel Agreste, causing him to drop the folder of papers he had been holding. Papers came flying out of her own bag, mixing in with the papers that Mr. Agreste had been carrying.

"Oh my gosh," she said quickly as she started speed grabbing the papers, "I am so sorry I didn't look where I was going and I was in such a rush and-" she gasped when she saw Adrien's father holding his head and groaning. "Oh my gosh Mr. Agreste! I'm so terribly sorry I really didn't mean to do this to you I promise! I just didn't think about where I was going I was hurrying and uh…. Here you go!" She held her arms out straight, head down as Mr. Agreste got up and stared down at her. His expression was completely neutral, but his eyes gave away his anger and confusion.

"Who exactly are you and why are you in my house?"

"I uh…" she smiled sheepishly, looking up at him, "my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I go to your sons school. We talked once before when I uh, accidentally took that book which I am still really sorry about! I swear everything in that incident was completely an accident!" Gabriel took the papers from her, sorting through them as she rambled, moving expressively. He looked like he was ignoring her, but couldn't help but notice that her behavior was very familiar, in more ways than one. "I just came to bring him notes but I ended up making him some soup for him, and uh I really hope that you don't mind that I did that but I promise I didn't eat any! Okay maybe a little but not like eat it, it's one of those recipes where you have to taste it to make sure it's just right cause it's a family recipe, I'm sure you have plenty of your own family recipes!" He held up a particular design, a red ball gown with a split on the side to reveal a black underskirt.

"Is this your design," he asked as he held it and turned it. "It certainly isn't one of mine."

"It is," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. "I love designing. It's my dream to become a designer and have people wear my clothes! I didn't mean to get mine mixed in with your though, sorry. Mine are still pretty amateur, I'm sure you don't want to keep looking through my designs." He kept looking through the sketches, easily sorting out his own and Marinette's, as well as her homework and other papers.

"These show a lot of promise," he said as he handed her the papers. "These look almost like professional sketches. Tell me, what are your summer plans?"

"My plans?" She blinked a couple of times as she took the papers. "I don't really have any plans other than helping my parents out at their bakery."

"Have you considered a summer internship program? You wouldn't get paid but when you graduate from school, if you show enough promise throughout the internship, then we pay for your schooling, provided that you come and work for our company immediately after graduation for at least 10 years, which is in the contract upon agreeing to the scholarship." He pulled a card out from the inside of his jacket. "Here. This has a website with more information on the matter." Marinette blinked several times as she took the card, looking at the website address.

"You want me… me… at your… your company…?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't give you that card. Put all the relevant information in the application." He looked where she had been going. "Were you heading back to Adrien's room?" She nodded, making him chuckle. "This is a big house dear. You were going the completely wrong way. Here, I'll show you to his room." He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and started walking.

"Thank you so much Mr. Agreste!" She smiled as Gabriel started leading her towards Adrien's room. "I didn't expect to run into you today. Do you work from home?"

"Yes I do." He smiled gently. "Of course there are things that force me to leave, such as fashion shows, corrections for dresses, things that only I am able to take care of. I try to do my work from home as much as I can. It lets me be closer to my son and protect him. With all of these supervillains running around it comforts me to be at home where I can keep him from harm."

"That's sweet." Marinette smiled. "Adrien is really sweet and kinda you know. You raised him well."

"I'm afraid that's all his mother," Gabriel replied. "I was busy but tried my best to spend time with him. His mother was the one always with him until she went missing. She taught him everything, and up until last year she taught him from home. I merely kept it up until it was clear to me that he would never be happy with home schooling."

"I'm glad you let him come to school." Marinette smiled gently, thinking about him. "Adrien is amazing to have in classes. He's sweet and he's kind and he's so thoughtful. I've never met anyone so selfless. I want to get to know him better but I never get a chance to spend much time with him." Gabriel could easily recognize the look on her face. It made him smile, he remembered another beautiful young woman with one such a look on her face.

"You're very different from others who he brings," he noted.

"What?" She turned to him with a confused look on her face. "Did you say something Mr. Agreste?"

"Nothing. So, why were you in the kitchen?"

* * *

Adrien was surprised to see both his father and Marinette were coming into his room.

"You let your friend get lost," Gabriel chuckled. "Perhaps you should've gone with her to the kitchen when she retrieved her bag."

"Father?!" He looked back and forth between his father and Marinette, surprised that not only was he standing there, in his room, but he was with Marinette, a girl he was in love with, and his father was smiling.

"Sorry Adrien," said Marinette. "I got lost and literally ran into your father."

"You didn't tell me you were going to have a guest," said Gabriel. "I'm glad it's at least such a creative individual." He gave them both a wave. "I'll be in my office. If you need me then you can call me." He walked out the door.

"Your dad is really nice," said Marinette as she sat down on his bed with him, pulling out her homework. "He complimented my designs! He even offered me an internship!"

"Seriously?" He looked towards the door. "My father offered you an internship? He's usually not so nice to people he doesn't know well." He sat down on the bed and loosely hugged his knees. "It's really weird to see him act like that."

"Something wrong?" Marinette frowned, gently placing her hand close to him as her palm laid against the bed. "Did I do something wrong? If you don't want me to take the internship I won't. It might be weird to see someone you go to school with and don't talk to much on a regular basis during summer break."

"No that's a great idea," he said with a smile and a wave of his hands. "I didn't mean to make you think you shouldn't do it. My father's a very hard man to impress so I think you should definitely take it!"

"But something's still wrong." She smiled at him. "Look, I know we don't really know each other well yet, but I want you to know that you can still talk to me about things. I mean if you don't want to then it's okay, but I'm here. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."

"It's just," he sighed letting go of his knees and letting his back hit the headboard as he stared at the ceiling, "it's weird that he talked to you so easily, and offered you a job. I can barely get him to spend any time with me." He looked at her. "No matter what he's almost always so wrapped up in his own problems. He's really changed. I mean he wasn't father of the year before, but we always had dinner together every night and always ate lunch together at least once a week and he used to help me with my lessons. Ever since my mom went missing I just, I just… never get to see him."

"Oh Adrien." Marinette gave him a sympathetic look. "Have you told him any of this?"

"Why would I," Adrien asked. "I'm my father's perfect son. He expects me to do everything he asks without question and be his perfect son. I'm not allowed to complain to him or talk about anything unless he initiates the conversation. At least that's how it's been since Mom died."

"You have to talk to him. I feel like a lot of problems could be fixed if you just communicated with your father." Marinette hesitated, but gently laid her hand over his as a comforting gesture. "If you want to spend more time with your father then you need to let him know. How else is he going to know how you feel? Your father isn't psychic, and just like all relationships, even family ones need communication to work. Sometimes my parents get so busy with work that it feels like they forgot about me but I always talk to them about it and it helps. You need to talk with your father and tell him about how you feel. You said it's been like this since your mom disappeared?" He nodded. "Then talk to him about that. Say that it's been hard for you too without her and that you really need him around. He needs to be reminded that you're grieving too, and that his way may be isolation, but you need company and comfort."

"Marinette you're always so creative at figuring out problems," he said with a smile, quickly holding her hand before pulling away and adjusting his seat. "So fractals in geometry, we're still doing that project in French, and then my sheets said we were talking about electron structures. Which one do you wanna start on first?"

* * *

Marinette was talking with her mother on the phone as she walked. It was getting dark out, and her mother seemed upset.

"I'm sorry mom," said Marinette, "we were just doing homework and we lost track of the time! No I wasn't on a secret date. I promise, if I ever do manage to get a date you'll be the first person to know, even before Alya!"

"That's not why I'm upset," her mother replied. "I knew you were stopping at someone's house to drop off homework, but I was worried sick! If you want to stay at someone's house and do homework there that's fine. You know you have my complete and total trust, but I just need you to let me know. That's why you have your phone. Otherwise I'm going to think something bad happened!"

"You're right," said Marinette. "This is my fault and I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stay so long, but Adrien asked me to."

"Well next time call me," said her mother. "Dinner will be ready when you get home. I love you."

"Love you too Mom. See you soon." They both hung up, making Marinette sigh as Tikki came out of her bag and flew next to her. "I messed up Tikki. I totally forgot to call my Mom and let her know what was going on, and I was so busy paying attention to Adrien and working on homework that I missed her phone calls!"

"Everyone makes mistakes Marinette," said Tikki, "but you need to work on not letting Adrien take up all your attention. You can't let him distract you, especially since he has distracted you as Ladybug before! The world depends on you Marinette, and you need to remember that."

"I know." She sighed. "But Adrien was so different today. I kinda liked seeing this newer, more open side of him. I hope I get to see more of that."

* * *

Adrien knocked on the door of his father's office.

"Who's there?"

"Father, it's me," he said after a few moments. "I was hoping maybe we could talk."

"Come in." Adrien opened the door, watching his father work hard on some papers as he sat at his desk. "Is it important? Do you think we'll need to cancel your shoots for tomorrow as well? If you're still not feeling well then I'll have Natalie cancel them. Your health is more important than shoots."

"It's not that," he said as he sat down in the chair in front of the desk. "Actually I'm feeling a lot better. Whatever soup Marinette made me, I think she called it chicken noodle soup, it's helped me feel a lot better."

"That's good," Gabriel replied. "From what I've seen she's incredibly creative and quite a sweet girl, even if there was that strange book incident. After all, not only did she bring you your homework, but she cooked for you."

"She's pretty amazing," Adrien agreed with a smile before shaking his head, "but that's not what I'm here to talk about, even if Marinette did help me gather my courage to come talk."

"Gather your courage?" Gabriel stopped what he was doing to look at his son. "I'm your father Adrien. You can talk to me whenever I have the time."

"That's just it," Adrien exclaimed. "You never have the time anymore! Even when you're home, which is most of the time, you still don't spend time with me! You don't eat dinner with me, you never ask me how my day went, you didn't even spend time with me on my birthday this year!" He stood up, throwing his arm out. "That was my first birthday without Mom! She's been gone well over a year but this isn't helping! I get it, Marinette told me to understand that you're still grieving, but I just-" he put his hand on his face, trying not to cry, "I miss her so much Father. I miss hearing her voice, I miss her hugs, I miss when she used to kiss me goodnight, but sometimes it doesn't feel like she's the only one gone. It feels like you left with her. You haven't been the same since she left and that you're still grieving loosing her after that accident, but I'm grieving her too! Sometimes, with how often you're gone I feel like I'm gonna loose you too! Do you even care how I'm feeling during all this? It's been well over a year and it hasn't just felt like I lost my mother, but my father too." Gabriel was silent for several moments before standing up and wrapping his arms around Adrien, holding his son closer.

"I had no idea," he said softly. "I'm sorry Adrien. I thought you'd want the distance from me. I thought you blamed me for what happened. I couldn't find her, I couldn't save her."

"I don't blame you," said Adrien as he hugged his father back. "You didn't know that would happen. I never blamed you, not even for a moment. Please, go back to being my father. I want to spend time with you."

"I'll do my best," Gabriel promised. Adrien felt such an incredible amount of relief from finally getting that off his chest. He relaxed against his father, a peaceful smile on his face.

* * *

The next morning, Marinette woke up feeling like she had two rocks lodged up her nose.  
"Ugh, I feel awful." She dragged herself out of bed and checked her reflection, to see that her nose was red and runny, her eyes were puffy and her skin was paler than normal. "Oh no, how can I be sick?!"

"It's very hard for a Ladybug to get sick," Tikki snickered, "but not impossible. Only if she ends up interacting with someone specific."

"Who?"

"It's a secret." Tikki winked at her. "Kwamis have their secrets too Marinette."

* * *

Adrien walked into the library, sitting next to Nino and across from an empty chair where Marinette would usually be.

"Where's Marinette?"

"Didn't you hear," said Alya as she showed Adrien her phone. "You gave her your cold. She's as sick as a dog so her parents are keeping her home."

"That stinks," said Adrien as he pulled out his book. "I wanted to thank her. She gave me some really good advice regarding my father yesterday. It helped a lot."

"Sounds like Marinette," said Alya. "She's always trying to help everyone."

"I know," Adrien replied with a smile. "It's what makes Marinette Marinette."

 **Song Of Hope: No Akuma attack today, but some positive character development for Adrien! I'm hoping to get to develop him more and more as the story goes on!**


End file.
